bIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

OF" 


Received 
Accession  No.  ff  /  /  £ 


.    Claxs  No. 


VALICS 

—  OR  — 

THE  SCIENCE  OF 
VALUE 


BY 

GEORGE     REED 


"Ye  fools  and  blind;    for  whether  [which~\   is  greater, 

the  gold,  or  the  temple  {humanity  or  mankind  ] 

that  sanctificth  \inakcth  valuable'}  the  gold?" 

Matt.  23 : 77. 

"And,  behold,  I  come  quickly  [suddenly]  ;  and  My  reward  is  with  Me, 
to  give  every  man  according  as  his  work  shall  be" — Rev.  22: 12. 


Published  by  GEORGE    REED 

10    Stevenson    Street,    San    Francisco,    California 
1900 

PRICE    $1.00 


COPYRIGHT  1900  BY  GEORGE  REED  v 

%J  /  5~0 


PREFACE. 

We  know  that  we  have  thrown  light  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  value,  shown  the  eternal  foundations  of  a  sci- 
ence, and  added  power  to  the  machinery  that  shall  yet 
destroy  great  wrong.  We  have  taken  up  arms  against 
that  mental  monstrosity,  the  gold  standard,  and  we 
need  help. 

\Ve  look  for  assistance  to  our  college  brethren  of  the 
University  of  California,  for  whom  we  feel  deep  affec- 
tion, as  well  as  to  college  men  throughout  the  world. 
We  hope  they  will  take  up  the  subject  in  the  spirit  of 
reform,  and  lead  in  tne  attack-  against  old  errors,  espe- 
cially in  regard  to  teachings  upon  the  subject  of  what 
is  called  Political  Economy.  Public  wrongs  are  but 
public  errors,  and  true  science  is  on  the  side  of  oppo- 
nents of  existing  wrongs,  and  must  and  will  triumph. 

We  feel  that  the  graduates  of  our  schools  should  be 
quick  in  the  advance,  for  unto  whom  much  has  been 
given,  much  is  expected,  and  it  is  not  just  that  the  en- 
ergies of  the  state  should  be  wasted  in  educating  annual 
litters  of  mere  value  chasers.  The  state's  men,  espe- 
cially her  favored  children,  should  know  their  duty  to 
man  and  to  God,  which  is  to  endeavor  to  make  the 
world  better,  or  what  is  -the  same  thing,  happier,  and 
to  endeavor  to  earn  the  crown  of  leaving  it  the  better 
for  having  lived  in  it.  But  this  applies  not  alone  to 
men  who  have  been  taught  in  our  schools  (colleges  are 

(3) 


4  PREFACE. 

but  public  schools  that  are  supposed  to  be  more  ad- 
vanced), and,  indeed,  such  men  would  not  have  been 
particularly  designated  but  for  the  fact  that  their  duty 
ought  to  be  clear.  Outside  of  the  colleges  there  must 
be  vastly  more  talent  than  among  those  who  had  this 
accidental  privilege,  generally  traceable  to  the  ability 
of  certain  parents  to  maintain  their  children  while  at 
school.  Therefore,  all  good  men  are  asked  to  assist  in 
the  coming  struggle  of  right  against  wrong,  of  light 
against  darkness,  of  intelligence  against  ignorance,  of 
humanity  against  despotism;  and  this  can  be  done  by 
an  earnest  inquiry  for  the  truth;  the  faith  in  the  har- 
mony of  science  in  things  spiritual  or  in  the  field  of 
morals,  which  necessarily  will  be  accompanied  by  the 
conviction  that  an  unjustly  or  inequitably-governed 
world  is  not  of  the  plan  of  heaven. 

It  is  a  crime  to  attempt  to  establish  the  ignorance  of 
the  past  against  the  reason  of  the  present,  and  if  prec- 
edent stands  not  as  a  bar  against  intelligent  progress, 
the  world  may  advance  by  unimpeded  evolution,  rather 
than  by  intermittent  revolution  or  public  shock,  for  in 
the  past  remissions  of  some  of  the  worst  public  sins 
have  been  bought  by  the  effusion  of  a  great  deal  of  the 
best  of  the  public  blood.  This  may  be  avoided  for  the 
future  by  putting  no  legal  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the 
moral  progress  of  man,  and  by  removing  such  as  have 
been  so  placed. 

Political  Economy,  Government,  or  true  Politics  as  a 
science  must  rest  upon  the  grand  principle  of  common 
justice.  Indeed,  the  people  of  the  United  States  are 
particularly  fortunate  in  the  fact  that  in  the  beginning 
they  announced  this  principle  as  the  rock  of  their  gov- 
ernment, and  it  was  also  asserted  by  the  faithful  in  a 


PREFACE.  5 

long,  bloody,  desperate  but  successful  war  against  our 
brethren  in  blood, — a  people  whose  tendencies,  as  com- 
pared with  those  of  other  European  nations,  are  lenient 
and  liberal. 

The  American  people  in  their  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence declare  that  all  men  are  (legally)  equal,  and 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable 
rights,  and  that  government  should  exist  only  to  secure 
such  rights. 

The  trouble  is  that  we,  instead  of  making  new  con- 
quests for  liberty,  are  even  retreating  from  the  ditch  so 
gloriousjy  won  of  old  by  our  half-fed,  unpaid,  hard- 
fighting,  ragged  regiments. 

The  American  people  did  ordain  and  establish  a  Con- 
stitution for  the  United  States  of  America,  "in  order  to 
form  a  more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  insure 
domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defense, 
promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of 
JibrHi/.  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity." 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  in  the  United  States  no  public 
wrong  Can  be  constitutional.  The  preamble  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  such  a  thieving 
scoundrelisni  as  the  law  of  the  single  gold  standard  are 
not  in  legal  harmony.  There  is  a  note  struck  in  this 
preamble  and  in  that  declaration  that  can  never  fail, 
and  a  Supreme  Court  that  could  not  hear  it  would  be  fit 
for  the  devil's  supreme  tribunal  in  the  government  of 
hades. 

May  no  honest  and  intelligent  man  before  he  has 
carefully  investigated  this  matter  say  that  we  in  our 
assertions  are  outside  the  pale  of  reason  or  have  over- 
stepped the  boundary  of  right,  and  then  we  believe  he 
can  never  say  so.  "\Ye  know  that  we  are  doing  our 


6  PREFACE. 

duty  to  the  country  as  we  see  it.  We  carefully  dis- 
tinguish between  the  sin  and  the  sinner,  and  we  do  not 
suppose  that  the  Supreme  Court  ever  had  the  question 
put  before  it  in  this  light.  It  will  do  this  Court  no 
harm  to  look  a  little  into  the  matter  of  the  natural  right 
of  men,  for  this  exalted  body  enjoys  probably  the 
unique  distinction  oi  being  the  only  tribunal  on  earth 
that  is  plainly  sworn  to  uphold  it. 

This  is  a  "business"  age,  and  the  time  of  the  Supreme 
Court  is  taken  up  among  "business  propositions." 
The  government  of  this  country  is  -a  business  proposi- 
tion of  the  whole  people.  The  memory  of  the  fact  that 
a  business  proposition  should  also  be  a  moral  proposi- 
tion seem  to  be  falling  into  "desuetude." 

The  bill  proposing  the  monomonetism  of  gold  was  a 
"business  proposition"  in  favor  of  "business"  men  who 
knew  their  own  "business,"  favored  by  a  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  who  did  not  know  what  ought  to  be  his 
"business,"  and  passed  by  a  Congress  who  knew  little 
or  nothing  of  the  "business." 

It  is  now  a  law,  defended  by  "business"  politicians 
engaged  in  making  grand-stand  plays  and  shouting  out 
the  praises  of  exclusive  gold  money  in  what  they  call 
devotion  to  the  country  like  so  many  dervishes  scream- 
ing, "Allah  illah  Allah,"  in  what  they  call  devotion  to 
the  Creator. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface 3 

Introduction— Valics,  or  the  Science  of  Value 9 

CHAPTER  I. 
Value  and  Price,  or  Relative  Value 15 

CHAPTER  II. 
The  Theory  of  Value 38 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  Theory  of  Value,  Continued 55 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Theory  of  Value,  Concluded 63 

CHAPTER  V. 
What  Is  Value  ? 81 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Definition  of  Money 87 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Changes  in  Relative  Value,  or  Fluctuations  in  Price 94 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Graphic  Record  of  Price,  or  Relative  Value 101 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Coins,  Counters,  and  Paper  Money 107 

(7) 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X.  PAGE 

Weight 118 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Older  Money,  Coins,  Trade,  and  Industry 126 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Bimetallism 143 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Gold  Monometallism 151 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Debts 159 

CHAPTER  XV. 
The  Remedy 165 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Origin  of  the  Dollar 181 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
History  of  American  Money 184 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Money  Coinages  and  Weights  of  the  World 195 

Money  Coinages  and  Weights  of  Europe      196 

Money  Coinages  and  Weights  of  Asia 224 

Money  Coinages  and  Weights  of  Africa 234 

Money  Coinages  and  Weights  of  America 236 

Commercial  Ratio  or  Relative  Value  of  Silver  and  Gold 247 

Practical 249 

Announcement 250 


'     or 

TJHIVEBSITY 


INTRODUCTION. 
Valics,  or  the  Science  of  Value. 

At  the  very  begining  of  this  treatise  upon  Value,  the 
reader  is  asked  to  make  particular  distinction  between 
any  commodity  and  its  value;  to  remember  that  value 
is  not  the  same  thing  as  the  material  which  is  said  to 
possess  it. 

A  ton  of  wheat  is  one  thing,  its  value  is  another. 
The  value  of  a  pound  of  gold  is  one  thing,  the  gold  is 
another,  and  though  wheat  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  gold,  still  the  value  of  wheat  is  not  a  very  different 
thing  from  the  value  of  gold.  In  fact,  they  are  the  same 
thing  or  different  examples  of  the  same  thing  (value), 
but  value  resides  (if  we  may  use  the  word)  with  more 
strength  in  gold  than  it  does  in  wheat,  that  is,  a  pound 
of  gold  has  more  value  than  has  a  pound  of  wheat,  and 
all  value  is  of  the  same  nature  or  source  though  very 
frequently  of  different  degree,  intensity  or  strength. 

Pound  for  pound,  the  human  race  desires  gold  more* 
strongly  than  it  does  wheat,  bids  higher  for  it  or  is  will- 
ing- to  pay  more  labor  for  it;  the  value  of  gold  is  there- 
fore comparatively  greater  than  that  of  wheat,  or  gold 
is  "dearer,"  or,  pound  for  pound,  buys  more  of  the  labor 
of  man  or  represents  more  blood-power  than  does 
wheat. 

The  Science  of  Value  we  have  named  Valics,  but  as 

(9) 


10  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

Value  is  the  Medium  of  Exchange  among  men,  this  sci- 
ence could  appropriately  be  called  the  Science  of  Com- 
merce or  the  Science  of  Exchange.  Labor  is  paid  by 
or  with  Value;  the  products  of  labor  are  exchanged  by 
means  of  value;  and  this  science  could  properly  be  called 
the  Science  of  Labor;  therefore  it  is  apparent  how  tran- 
scendently  important  its  principles  are  to  those  who  la- 
bor, especially  to  wage  earners,  hirelings,  salaried  men 
or  "professional  men,"  and  how  favorably  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  its  principles  must  affect  a  useful  world, 
for  no  government  can  be  sound  whose  financial  legisla- 
tion is  not  built  in  harmony  with  the  proper  under- 
standing of  these  principles. 

All  commercial  debts  are  paid  with  material  gotten 
by  labor,  therefore  the  debt  of  the  world  may  almost  be 
called  the  sin  of  the  world,  a  burden  resting  heavily 
upon  useful  mankind,  "the  white  man's  burden,"  which 
to  a  fearful  extent  is  demoralizing  Humanity,  repress- 
ing Progress,  retarding  Civilization,  and  brutalizing 
Mankind,  where  Science  is  humanizing,  refining,  and 
elevating  in  such  manner  that  our  progress  is  almost 
the  Progress  of  Poverty.  As  this  debt  is  practically  an 
obligation  to  deliver  gold,  the  obligations  to  deliver 
other  materials  being  insignificant,  and  as  this  argu- 
ment logically  followed  must  lead  to  the  destruction  of 
the  gold  standard  theory  and  the  extinction  of  the 
"octopus"  or  "money  power,"  therefore  it  is  fraught 
with  most  important  consequences.  The  distribution 
of  wealth  or  value  is  manifestly  unfair  and  present  con- 
ditions or  systems  must  be  wrong.  The  word  "Wealth" 
in  this  case  means  value.  The  meaning  of  the  word 
wealth  is  sometimes  indefinite.  At  times  those  who 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

employ  it  mean  value  and  then  again  they  mean  weal, 
welfare,  well  being,  but  much  that  is  conducive  to  wel- 
fare may  sometimes  be  bought  with  value,  so  there  is 
generally  some  confusion  regarding  the  meaning  of  this 
word  wealth,  in  this  treatise  there  is  none,  and  we  think 
none  regarding  the  meaning  of  any  other  greatly  im- 
portant word.  The  Science  of  Value,  as  we  take  it,  is 
included  within  the  science  of  Political  Economy;  we 
think  that  the  latter  means  more  than  does  the  Science 
of  Value,  though  some  would  reduce  its  scope  to  what 
we  have  termed  Valics.  A  common  and  very  fre- 
quently accepted  definition  of  Political  Economy  is  the 
following,  viz.:  'That  branch  of  knowledge  which  treats 
of  the  nature  of  Wealth  (Value)  and  the  laws  of  its  pro- 
duction and  distribution."  A  famous  modern  political 
economist  (Nicholson)  says,  "The  economist  regards 
man  as  a  being  who  produces,  exchanges,  and  consumes 
wealth  (value),  and  considers  him  as  a  member  of  so- 
ciety, one  of  the  objects  of  which  is  to  deal  with  wealth" 
(value).  A  Swiss  economist,  Sismondi,  with  the  pleas- 
ant directness  and  clear  vision  of  a  man  and  a  brother, 
defines  Political  Economy  as  "the  Science  of  Human 
Happiness,"  and  we  agree  with  this,  but  in  this  case  the 
word  "human"  means  all  mankind, — the  science  of  gen- 
eral happiness  or  of  public  prosperity. 

Professor  Adams  says  "Political  Economy  treats  of 
Industrial  Society.  Its  purpose  as  an  analytical  science 
is  to  explain  the  industrial  actions  of  men.  Its  purpose 
as  a  constructive  science  is  to  discover  a  scientific  and 
rational  basis  for  the  formation  and  government  of  in- 
dustrial society."  Ruskin  defines  Political  Economy  as 
the  "system  of  conduct  and  legislation  which  should 


12  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

multiply  human  life  at  its  highest  standard,"  which  is 
true. 

If  it  is  a  science  it  must  be  the  same  everywhere. 
There  can  be  no  exclusively  "American  system"  of 
truth.  Political  Economy  is  the  science  of  public  wel- 
fare and  might  almost  truly  be  called  the  Science  of 
Public  Morality,  as  seeking  to  formulate  laws  that  shall 
do  justice  between  man  and  man,  and  in  this  case  it  is 
almost  if  not  quite  the  same  thing  as  true  Religion,  for 
men  can  not  sin  against  man  or  mankind  without  sin- 
ning against  Heaven,  and  these  sins  are  sins  against  the 
Holy  Ghost;  they  are  unpardonable;  that  is,  they  are 
always  expiated,  and  mankind  is  retarded  by  them;  they 
are  burdens  that  are  carried  until  thrown  off.  Such 
sins  are  slavery,  gold  monometallism,  and  other  forms  of 
special  privilege  or  monopolism,  or  the  giving  to  pri- 
vate individuals  of  that  which  by  moral  law  (we  being 
equal  heirs)  belongs  to  us  equally,  and  to  which  private 
individuals  (by  the  same  law)  can  never  logically  acquire 
exclusive  title.  Government  can  not  steal  but  it  may 
furnish  methods  whereby  some  men  may  unjustly  take 
from  others  or  prevent  others  from  acquiring.  (We 
are  not  talking  of  stealing  or  of  thieves  in  the  ordinary 
sense.  This  argument  does  not  presume  that  any  man 
is  a  lawless  thief.)  The  Science  of  Political  Economy 
being  the  Science  of  Public  Welfare,  is  the  science  to 
which  all  others  are  subordinate.  Among  these  we  ac- 
count Valics  or  the  Science  of  Value.  Political  Econ- 
omy would  then  seem  to  be  solicitous  for,  or  interested 
in,  the  soul  of  man,  the  spirit,  the  Immanuel  (the  intelli- 
gence or  God  within  us),  that  essence  within  us  which 
was  at  the  beginning  and  in  which,  according  to  the 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

theory  of  many,  we  partake  of  the  Creator  of  the  Uni- 
verse, and  which  is  receiving  power  or  truth  from  the 
Fountain  head,  and  among  us  is  unfolding,  strengthen- 
ing, advancing,  expanding. 

What  shall  be  the  end,  or  why  we  should  take  this 
journey,  we  know  not,  but  we  feel  that  we  should  take 
the  right  road,  so  that  the  human  race  may  advance 
pleasantly  and  rapidly,  and  there  is  vast  hope  for  the 
future,  for  from  the  crudeness  of  the  past,  in  spite  of 
much  stumbling  and  erroneous  direction  in  the  darkness 
of  ignorance,  and  under  a  cloud  of  crime,  we  have  ad- 
vanced to  where  we  are  now;  and  from  where  we  are 
now,  if  we  but  proceed  in  the  right  direction,  we  may  go 
forward  with  astonishingly  accelerated  rapidity,  and  this 
advance  will  be  due  to  Science,  the  Spirit  of  Truth  and 
Comforter  of  mankind.  It  seems  to  us  that  were  the 
Divine  will  done  upon  earth  or  by  mankind  as  it  is  in 
heaven  or  throughout  nature  or  throughout  space, 
where  worlds  eternal  move  in  unerring  harmony,  then 
would  the  "Kingdom  of  Heaven"  be  "at  hand." 

It  is  the  province  of  Political  Economy  to  discover 
this  will,  this  harmony,  this  rule  of  action,  that  the  laws 
which  govern  us  may  be  formulated  in  accordance 
therewith,  for  we  believe  that  the  happy  way  is  sternly 
logical  and  strictly  just,  and  that  we  should  demand  that 
justice  be  done  among  men,  but  we  can  discover  what  is 
just  only  by  the  dispersion  of  error, or, as  it  is  said,  by  the 
"discovery  of  truth,"  and  it  is,  we  believe,  by  this  that 
the  greatest  happiness  to  mankind  or  to  the  human  race 
may  be  brought  about;  and  the  love  of  God,  or  Science, 
is  inseparable  from  the  love  of  man  or  humanity;  where- 
fore universal  justice  and  exact  science  are  in  accord, 


14  VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE   OF    VALUE. 

and  "the  'real  use  of  all  knowledge  is  that  we  should 
dedicate  that  reason  which  was  given  us  by  God,  to  the 
use  and  advantage  of  Man."  (Bacon.)  Therefore  we 
believe  the  science  of  Political  Economy  to  be  a  great 
moral  science,  grander  and  broader  than  the  Science  of 
Value,  which  it  includes,  and  that  the  word  "valics"  ex- 
plains what  is  meant  by  the  Science  of  Value,  or  of  Com- 
merce, or  Exchange,  or  Property,  or  Labor,  and  is  as 
good  a  word  as  Physics,  Mathematics,  Statics,  Dynam- 
ics, Music,  Logic,  Aquatics,  etc.;  although  perhaps  not 
properly  Greek,  nevertheless  the  world  needs  it  and  its 
utility  gives  abundant  reason  for  its  being. 

Value  comes  from  old  French  Valu,  from  Valoir,  to  be 
worth,  a  descendant  of  the  Latin  valere,  to  be  strong, 
to  be  worth.  Political  Economy  is  derived  from  three 
Greek  words,  one  meaning  state,  or  public  or  people, 
another  household,  and  a  third  law,  custom,  or  regula- 
tion, the  science  of  public  housekeeping  or  of  the  house- 
keeping of  the  state.  This  strikes  us  as  being  a  very 
good  description  of  the  practical  application  of  the  sci- 
ence, and  as  being  more  than  the  Science  of  Value,  or 
an  investigation  of  the  phenomena  and  laws  of  "wealth" 
(value). 


CHAPTER   L 
Value  and  Price  or  Relative  Value. 

For  the  purpose  of  beginning  our  investigation,  value 
is  sufficiently  defined  by  the  expression  "purchasing 
power,"  very  commonly  used. 

In  investigating  this  subject,  let  us  from  the  begin- 
ning be  especially  careful  and  faithful  in  the  apparently 
small  things  of  fact,  that  we  may  become  masters  of  the 
great  things  of  science  or  theory.  Differences  where 
there  is  no  distinction  made,  and  distinctions  without 
essential  difference,  must  be  carefully  sought  out  and 
detected. 

We  shall  deal  in  this  treatise  only  with  substances 
sold  by  weight,  money  being  such  a  substance;  at  least 
such  is  our  conception  of  money.  We  consider  the 
money  of  the  United  States  of  America  as  the  minted 
gold  of  the  United  States,  and  do  not  regard  the  silver, 
nickel,  copper,  and  paper  tokens  of  the  United  States 
as  money,  although  to  men  in  the  market-place  they 
may  be  as  "good",  as  money  or  willingly  accepted  in 
place  of  the  money  they  represent.  This  subject  of 
token  metal  and  paper  \vill  be  taken  up  later  under 
"Coin,  Counters,  and  Paper  Money."  Utility  and  value 
should  not  be  confounded,  they  have  been  called  "value 
in  use"  and  "value  in  exchange."  We  are  dealing  with 
value  in  exchange,  and  in  this  work  tne  word  value  will 

(15) 


16  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

ordinarily  mean  value  in  exchange  or  purchasing  power. 

Value  is  something  that  can  be  dealt  with  mathemat- 
ically, that  is,  it  can  be  compared  with  mathematical 
accuracy,  but  utility  can  not.  It  can  only  be  compared 
generally,  and  usually  opinion atively.  We  can  hardly 
say  that  printing  is  of  more  utility  than  sewing,  or  the 
pen  more  important  than  the  needle,  or  that  a  hammer 
is  more  useful  than  a  drill,  or  a  knife  than  a  spoon,  or 
if  it  should  be  that  one  thing  is  more  useful  than  another 
different  thing,  we  can  hardly  say  that  it  is  twice  or 
three  times  as  useful,  but  we  can  say  that  United  States 
gold  money  is  more  valuable  comparatively  or  relatively 
than  lead,  its  purchasing  power  per  pound  is  exactly 
so  much  greater  than  that  of  lead  at  a  given  price 
per  pound.  Some  things  have  great  utility  and  lit- 
tle or  no  value;  such,  for  instance,  is  water.  "An  article 
may  be  possessed  of  the  highest  degree  of  utility  or 
power  to  minister  to  our  needs  or  enjoyments  and  may 
be  universally  made  use  of  without  possessing  exchange- 
able value."  (McCulloch.)  The  value  of  the  lands  of 
the  United  States  is  very  great,  but  their  utility  to  the 
nation  is  certainly  not  increased  by  their  great  aggre- 
gate value.  It  may  add  greatly  to  the  "wealth"  (value) 
of  the  nation,  but  not  to  its  "wealth"  (welfare). 

It  most  certainly  does  not  add  to  the  "wealth  of  the 
nation,"  that  is,  if  wealth  in  this  sense  means  welfare. 
"Value  is  the  power  to  command  commodities  gener- 
ally." (A.  L.  Chapin,  in  Johnson's  Encyclopedia.) 
"Value  is  the  generic  term  which  expresses  power  in 
exchange."  (F.  A,  Walker,  Political  Economy.) 

The  public  parks  of  the  country  are  not  for  sale,  and 
their  value  may  be  called  nothing;  their  utility,  however, 


VALUE   AND    PRICE    OR   RELATIVE    VALUE.          17 

is  not  decreased  because  of  this  fact.  The  utility  of 
diamond  as  compared  with  iron  is  apparently  not  very 
great,  although  considerable  because  of  its  hardness, 
and  perhaps  more  because  of  its  ornamental  quality. 
Nevertheless,  its  value  is  very  great.  It  is  an  exceed- 
ing!}- valuable  substance,  and  bears  a  very  high  price. 
It  is  purchasing  power  we  are  treating  of,  and  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  it  can  be  proved,  contrary,  perhaps,  to  the  us- 
ual impression,  that  utility  in  general,  or  public  utility, 
which  is  the  utility  of  the  Political  Economist,  or  the 
utility  as  it  applies  to  the  public  welfare,  rather  varies 
inversely  to  the  value.  That  is,  an  article  becomes  more 
generally  useful  as  it  becomes  cheap,  or  the  greater  the 
value  i he  less,  generally  speaking,  is  the  utility.  If  win- 
dow panes  were  worth  $10  each  they  would  be  useful, 
and  at  10  cents  each  they  are  more  generally  useful  or 
of  more  public  utility.  They  would  thus  add  more  to  the 
nil  happiness,  would  affect  mankind  more  favorably. 
As  things  lose  their  high  value  they  become  more  gen- 
erally iist-iu i,  but  they  do  not  lose  their  utility.  On  the 
contrary,  they  are  nsetul  to  more  men.  A  thing  not  in 
tn.de  at  all  may  be  of  great  utility,  for  example,  a  park,  a 
college, a  public  water  works, all  built  by  labor.  Advance 
or  civilization  should  mean  the  cheapening  of  articles  as 
measured  in  labor.  This  conduces  to  the  public  welfare, 
and  Political  Economy  is  concerned  in  the  public  wel- 
fare. She  is  by  no  means  a  bedizened  courtezan  in  the 
court  of  a  gold  standard  despotism,  but  is  the  cherish- 
ing mother  of  the  Labor  of  the  world. 

The  breaking  down  of  value  is  in  some  sense  the  task 
of  civilization.  As  good  things  are  cheaper,  a  greater 
proportion  of  the  people  may  enjoy  them,  and  herein 


18  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

lies  the  beneiit  of  improved  machinery  methods  and 
processes,  it  being  a  truth  that  political  economy  or 
true  progress  is  interested  in  the  greatest  possible  return 
of  blessings  for  the  labor  employed,  in  the  largest 
return  in  human  happiness  for  the  exertion  used, 
in  the  economy  of  the  labor  of  man;  for  good  things 
should  be  cheap  as  measured  against  the  labor  of  men, 
as  weighed  for  the  blood  of  industry,  the  most  precious 
coin  we  have. 

PRICE    AND    RELATIVE    VALUE. 

As  we  have  stated  that  by  the  word  value  is  meant 
purchasing  power,  it  is  now  in  turn  to  explain  the 
distinction  between  value  and  price. 

Speaking  generally  the  price  of  anything  is  that  for 
which  it  will  exchange  or  does  exchange  in  trade.  If 
a  bushel  of  wheat  sells  for  a  pound  of  soap,  then  the 
price  of  a  bushel  of  wheat  is  a  pound  of  soap,  and  the 
price  of  a  pound  of  soap  is  a  bushel  of  wheat.  If  8 
pounds  of  onions  exchange  for  12  pounds  of  potatoes, 
then  the  price  of  8  pounds  of  onions  is  12  pounds  of 
potatoes,  and  the  price  of  12  pounds  of  potatoes  is  8 
pounds  of  onions.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  utterly  impos- 
sible to  mention  one  price  without  mentioning  two,  and 
the  one  is  the  equivalent  of  the  other,  or  the  price  of  the 
other,  or  at  least  exchanged  for  the  other  in  that  ex- 
change or  trade. 

Now  suppose  such  trading  as  the  above  goes  on 
indiscriminately,  then  it  is  called  barter.  It  is  said  to 
exist  to  this  day  in  certain  portions  of  the  interior  of 
Africa. 

It  is  trade  without  reference  to  or  comparison  with 


VALUE   AND    PRICE    OR   RELATIVE    VALUE.          19 

the  value  of  some  particular  standard  commodity  which 
v-:c  call  money.  It  still  remains  true  even  where 
money  is  used  that  one  price  can  not  be  mentioned  with- 
out mentioning  two,  one  of  which  gives  the  price  of 
a  commodity  in  money,  and  the  other  gives  the  price  of 
money  in  this  commodity. 

For  instance  if  wheat  sells  for  $1.00  per  cental,  the 
price  of  i  cental  of  wheat  is  $1.00  and  the  price  (in 
wheat)  of  $1.00  is  one  cental.  When  a  man  goes  to  a 
butcher  shop  and  buys  beef  he  sells  money;  at  the  same 
time  the  butcher  buys  money  and  sells  beef,  though 
token  coins  be  used,  for  the  token  coins  are  as  "good" 
as  money,  because  convertible,  and  trade  in  the  United 
States  is  on  a  gold  "basis." 

So  that  in  every  transaction  of  exchange  in  trade  each 
man  not  only  buys,  but  he  at  the  same  time  sells,  or  a 
man  can  not  sell  without  buying  nor  buy  without  sell- 
ing. Every  sale  shows  a  purchase,  and  every  purchase 
shows  a  sale,  so  that  to  understand  the  theory  of  trade, 
both  sides  of  the  shield  must  be  seen.  Prices  are  ordi- 
narily given  in  money  units  or  unit  weights  of  money, 
and  hereafter  in  this  treatise  it  will  mean  the  price  in 
money,  the  equivalent  in  money,  the  quantity  of  money 
for  which  a  thing  exchanges,  the  same  as  our  market 
prices. 

"Price"  is  the  expression  for  the  quantity  of  value, 
and  is  the  weight  of  the  equivalent  in  the  material 
money.  Among  substances  sold  by  weight,  price  is 
the  statement  of  the  weight  of  money  that  is  equivalent 
or  equal  in  value  to  a  given  weight  of  some  commodity. 
To  say  that  the  price  of  anything  is  $1.00  per  pound, 
is  the  same  as  saying  that  25.8  grains  of  U.  S.  money 


20  ITALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    V4LUE. 

is  equivalent  to  i  pound,  or  7,000  grains,  of  the  other 
commodity. 

Value  is  purchasing-  power,  that  particular  subject 
whose  phenomena  we  are  investigating.  As  an  analo- 
gous example,  your  weight  is  the  quantity  of  your 
gravity  as  expressed  in  unit  weights  or  pounds,  but 
weight  or  gravity  is  the  subject  whose  laws  or  phe- 
nomena were  investigated  by  Newton. 

Money  is  often  called  the  common  denominator  of 
exchange,  as  it  is  the  substance  by  whose  value  is  ex- 
pressed the  value  of  all  other  substances  in  trade.  They 
all  exchange  for  so  much  money  per  unit.  If  there 
were  only  two  commodities  in  the  world  we  would 
hardly  know  which  were  money,  but  if  there  were  three 
or  four  it  would  be  the  one  which  we  would  say  or 
might  say  did  not  fluctuate  in  value,  the  one  that  had 
apparently  a  stable  value  and  really  an  inalterable  price 
as  reckoned  in  itself,  but  as  judged  by  any  other  as  a 
standard  it  also  would  fluctuate  in  exactly  the  same 
measure  but  in  the  opposite  sense,  that  is  when  one 
went  "tip"  the  other  would  go  "down." 

However  wre  have  not  two  commodities,  but  we  have 
many,  and  one  is  mentioned  in  every  case  of  valic  or 
commercial  comparison,  and  that  one  is  money. 

As  the  prices  of  all  things  are  stated  in  money,  and  as 
money  is  a  thing  sold  by  weight,  as  are  all  these  other 
things  (of  wliich  we  are  treating),  so  there  must  be  some 
definite  mathematical  relationship  in  every  exchange, 
and  there  is.  This  relationship  we  purpose  to  show, 
r-.nd  herein  exists  a  most  important  step  in  our  argument, 
and  the  reader  is  asked  to  attend  most  carefully  to  the 
following  reasoning. 


VALUE   AND    PRICE    OR   RELATIVE    VALUE.          21 

The  weight  of  money  is  always  given  in  every  price, 
and  if  the  weight  of  any  commodity  exchanged  for  it 
be  also  given,  then  we  have  the  weights  of  two  articles 
exchanged  for  each  other,  and  can  see  how  much  heav- 
ier the  one  is  than  the  other,  or  how  much  more  valua- 
ble the  latter  is  than  the.  former.  This  latter  is  the  rel- 
ative value  existing  between  the  two  commodities,  and 
the  former  is  the  ratio  or  relative  weight. 

We  naturally  take  the  money  and  weights  of  the 
U.  S.  for  illustration,  the  ordinary  unit  weight  in  the 
U.  S.  being  the  avoirdupois  pound,  consisting  of  7,000 
grains;  the  unit  weight  for  the  purpose  of  weighing  the 
money  of  the  U.  S.,  which  is  its  coined  gold,  is  the 
weight  of  the  U.  S.  dollar,  being  25.8  grains,  by  which 
weight  the  money  of  the  U.  S.  is  bought  and  sold  or 
accounted,  being  the  account  unit  for  the  money  of  the 
U.S. 

It  is  clear  that  if  we  divide  7,000,  which  is  the  number 
of  grains  in  an  avoirdupois  pound,  by  25.8,  which  is  the 
number  of  grains  in  a  U.  S.  dollar,  we  shall  get  a  result 
which  will  show  how  many  gold  dollars  there  are  in  an 
avoirdupois  pound  of  the  money  of  the  U.  S.;  this  result 
is  271.3178  v,'v  This  number  or  result  also  shows 
a  great  deal  more,  viz.,  it  shows  that  one  pound  of 
I  .  S.  money  will  buy  27 1.31 78^/8  pounds  of  any  com- 
modity which  sells  at  $1.00  per  pound. 

If  the  above  be  true,  it  will  buy  100  times  as  much,  or 
27I3I-7^2756s  pounds  of  any  commodity,  at  the  price 
i  cent  per  pound,  and  we  are  enabled  to  tell  how  many 
pounds  of  any  commodity  may  be  bought  for  a  pound 
of  U.  S.  money  at  any  price  in  cents  per  pound;  and 
below  we  have  partly  constructed  a  table  which  shows 
what  we  have  explained. 


22  VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

With  a  pound  of  U.  S.  money  or  the  gold  coin  of  the 
United  States  you  can  buy  of  any  commodity,  selling 
At     I  cent  per  pound ....   27131. 78  ff^  pounds. 

"        2      "          "          "         13565.89 

"  3  "  "  9043.92 

"  4  "  "  '"'  6782.94 

"  5  "  "  "  5426.35 

'•'  6  "  "  "  4521.96 

"  7  "  "  "  3875.96 

"  8  «  "  "  3391.47 

"  9  "  "  "  3014.64 

"  10  "  "  "  2713.17 

'1-2  54263.56 

The  first  number  above  is  absolutely  exact,  and  the 
others  are  correct  as  far  as  they  go  decimally. 

The  above  numbers  are  the  ratios  at  the  given  prices. 
Ratio  among  substances  sold  by  weight  is  practically  a 
statement  of  price.  They  are  logically  the  same  thing, 
and  there  is  no  true  ratio  among  substances  not  sold  by 
weight.  In  illustration,  we  subjoin  a  partial  table  of 
ordinary  prices,  which  correspond  to  given  ratios  as  the 
above  are  ratios  corresponding  to  given  prices.  It  is 
noticeable  that  the  price  of  U.  S.  money  is  always  $271.- 
3178  76-258  per  pound,  nor  does  the  price  of  any  money 
ever  vary.  If  it  should  be  said  to  vary,  it  is  because  it 
is  no  longer  reckoned  in  itself,  and  is  no  longer  money. 

The  price  of  any  commodity  in  U.  S.  money  at  the 

ratio  i  is      $271.3178  76-2^8  per  pound 

2  "         135.6589 

3  "  904392 

4  "  67.8294 

5  "          54-2635 

6  "          45.2196 

7"          38.7596  "       " 


VALUE   AND   PRICE   OR   RELATIVE    VALUE.         23 


ratio  8  is      $  3^.9147  per  pound 

9  "  30.1464 

10  -  27.1317 

1 6  "  16.9573 

100  "  2.713178 

1000  "  0.2713178 

10000  "  0.02713178  " 

"      27131.78  76-258  "  o.oi 

1-2   "  542.6356 

It  is  noticeable  that  the  price  of  anything  at  the  ratio 
I  as  compared  with  U.  S.  money  must  be  $271.3178 
76-258  per  pound,  while  any  ratio  greater  than  I  means 
a  price  less  than  this,  and  a  ratio  less  than  i  means  a 
price  greater  than  this. 

By  looking  at  this  table  we  see  that  every  price, 
among  articles  sold  by  weight,  shows  a  relationship  by 
weight.  This  is  understood  in  the  contention  of  the 
bimetallists  of  the  U.  S.  They  mean  a  ratio  by  weight 
of  1 6  to  I  as  compared  to  U.  S.  gold  coin,  or  that  16 
pounds  of  silver  by  weight  shall  be  equal  in  value  to  I 
pound  of  gold.  It  makes  small  difference  as  to  the 
ratio  whether  they  mean  to  compare  pure  silver  to  pure 
gold  or  standard  coin  silver  900  fine  to  standard  gold 
coin  900  rine.  In  the  latter  case  you  have  some  extra 
copper  thrown  in;  we  take  it  that  they  mean  to  com- 
pare coin  silver  to  coin  gold,  and  the  one  thing  they  are 
particular  about  is  16  to  I,  which  in  this  case  would 
mean  a  price  for  coin  silver  of  $16.9573  per  pound. 
They  demand  "the  free  and  unlimited  (unrestricted) 
coinage  of  both  silver  and  gold  at  the  present  legal 
ratio  of  16  to  i,"  which  legal  ratio  is  not  exactly  16  to  I, 
and  that  the  silver  dollar  shall  be  a  "full  legal  tender, 
equally  with  gold,  for  all  debts,  public  and  private." 


24  }'ALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

In  the  table  above  we  have  not  said  "16  to  i"  or  "i  to 
i"  or  "2  to  i"  but  simply  the  "ratio  16,"  the  "ratio  i," 
the  "ratio  2"  because  it  is  always  understood  that  this 
comparison  is  with  the  ratio  I  or  unity,  and  so  much 
verbiage  is  unnecessary  as  the  ratio  of  16  means  the 
same  as  the  ratio  of  16  to  i,  etc. 

The  ratio  also  always  shows  the  relative  value,  silver 
to  gold  at  1 6  to  i  by  weight  means  silver  to  gold  at  1-16 
to  i  by  value,  or  gold  16  times  as  valuable  by  weight 
as  silver.  It  is  plain  that  we  can  not  have  ratio  or  rela- 
tive weight  without  having  relative  value.  As  surely 
as  a  needle  pointing  to  the  north  also  indicates  the 
south,  so  surely  does  the  ratio  always  indicate  relative 
value.  We  can  not  have  one  without  having  the  other, 
and  they  are  always  the  inverse  of  each  other;  for  in- 
stance, if  the  ratio  of  any  commodity  be  16,  its  relative 
value  must  be  1-16. 

They  both  invariably  go  together,  and  the  above  ta- 
ble is  a  table  of  ratios,  as  it  shows  the  ratio  by  weight 
at  a  given  price.  It  also  shows  the  relative  value,  for 
the  one  is  the  inverse  of  the  other,  or  one  divided  by  the 
ratio  by  weight,  ordinarily  called  simply  "the  ratio," 
gives  the  ratio  by  value,  or  the  relative  value  (which 
we  would  like  to  name  the  valence),  and  a  table  of  rela- 
tive values  (or  valences)  were  it  constructed  would  be  ex- 
actly like  the  above  if  we  made  every  ratio  a  denomina- 
tor whose  numerator  were  i.  Thus  the  relative  value  of 
anything  selling  at  $1.00  per  pound  would  be  i  divided 
by  271.13178  76-258.  It  is  somewhat  inconvenient  to 
print  such  a  table,  and  the  above  serves  the  purpose  per- 
fectly well,  for  it  is  only  necessary  to  invert  the  ratios 
to  convert  them  into  relative  values.  By  such  a  table 


VALUE    A\'D    PRICE    OR   REEATH'E    VALVE.          L>f) 

the  value  of  all  commodities  is  compared  to  the  value  of 
money,  for  the  relative  value  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
particular  material  of  the  commodity.  Cherries  at  2 
cents  a  pound,  plums  at  2  cents  a  pound  or  asphaltum 
at  2  cents  a  pound,  all  have  the  same  relative  value,  and 
if  the  value  of  all  commodities  is  compared  to  the  value 
of  a  single  one,  then  are  they  all  intercompared  or  com- 
pared to  each  other,  on  the  principle  of  logic  that  if  Jack 
is  twice  as  heavy  as  Jim,  and  Jim  is  three  times  as  heavy 
as  Bob,  then  Jack  is  six  times  as  heavy  as  Bob.  There 
are  many  rules  and  relationships  that  become  apparent 
upon  the  stud}  of  this  table,  for  instance,  the  weight  of 
any  commodity  multiplied  by  the  relative  value  of  the 
commodity  gives  the  weight  of  the  money  that  will  buy 
it.  When  we  use  the  \vonl  "ratio"  in  this  treatise  it 
shall  mean  the  relative  weight  of  the  commodity  as  com- 
pared to  the  ratio  or  relative  weight  of  money  (which 
is  always  i),  and  whenever  we  use  the  term  relative 
value  it  shall  mean  the  relative  value  of  the  commodity 
as  compared  to  the  relative  value  of  money.  (The  rela- 
tive value  of  money  is  always  i.) 

The  minted  gold  of  the  U.  S.  which  is  reckoned  in 
dollars  is  a  substance  having  great  value,  that  is,  it  is 
worth  $271.3178  76-258  per  pound,  therefore  the  rel- 
ative value  of  by  far  the  greater  number  of  substances 
in  trade  as  compared  with  the  relative  value  of  money, 
which  is  i,  would  be  less  than  i,  or  fractions  of  i,  though 
there  are  a  few  substances  worth  more  than  money  by 
weight,  and  the  relative  value  of  these  would  be  greater 
than  i,  but  the  price  of  U.  S.  money  is  always  $271.3178 
76-258  per  pound,  therefore  its  relative  value  is  always 
i.  Its  price  never  changes;  its  relative  value  never  can 


26  VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

change,  as  it  is  compared  with  its  own  value  as  a  stand- 
ard and  it  matters  not  how  much  its  own  value  (com- 
mand over  labor)  may  change,  its  price  or  relative  value 
never  can;  it  must  ever  always  be  i,  and  if  we  invert 
this,  I  divided  by  i  is  i,  it  follows  the  ratio  of  money 
is  always  i.  This  is  true  by  similar  reasoning,  not  only 
of  American  money,  but  of  any  money  in  the  world,  so 
it  is  a  general  truth  that  the  relative  value  of  money  is 
always  i,  and  this  points  to  a  definition  of  money  as 
being  that  substance  whose  relative  value  is  always  i, 
or  whose  value  is  the  standard  for  the  comparison  of 
value.  The  ratio  of  any  merchandise  more  valuable 
than  money  must  always  be  less  than  i,  and  the  ratio  of 
any  merchandise  less  valuable  than  money  must  always 
be  more  than  I. 

We  must  conceive  of  money  as  we  do  of  wheat,  or 
any  other  merchandise.  When  we  think  of  wheat,  we 
do  not  think  of  a  pound  of  wheat  or  of  a  bushel  of  wheat, 
but  we  think  of  wheat  generally  as  a  merchandise.  A 
quantity  of  U.  S.  gold  coins  piled  upon  a  table  is  money, 
and  this  merchandise  is  weighed,  sold,  and  accounted 
by  a  definite  weight,  called  a  dollar. 

This  weighing  is  done  at  the  mint,  and  this  fact  is 
certified  to  upon  the  ingots  or  coins  themselves. 

There  is  a  difference  between  money  and  wheat, 
which  is  that  there  are  different  qualities  of  wheat, 
bearing  different  prices,  even  in  the  same  market  at  the 
same  time,  but  there  is  strictly  only  one  quality  of 
money;  it  is  all  exactly  alike,  and  is  what  it  purports  to 
be  when  honestly  made,  as  it  is  by  all  the  advanced 
nations  of  the  world.  In  the  United  States  it  is  always 
manufactured  of  an  alloy  900  Au.  and  100  Cu.,  an  inti- 


VALUE    AXD    PRICE    OR   RELATIVE    VALUE.          27 

mate  mixture  or  bullion  9-10  An.  and  i-io  Cu.  as 
minted  by  the  U.  S.  It  is  evident  that  the  ratio  of  any 
substance  multiplied  by  its  relative  value  is  always  I. 
At  1 6  to  i,  1 6  multiplied  by  1-16  is  equal  to  I.  At  I 
to  i,  which  means  at  the  price  of  the  standard  money, 
which  is  always  $271.3178  76-258  per  pound,  we  have 
i  multiplied  by  i  is  equal  to  I. 

In  this  fact  money  bears  the  same  relation  to  other 
commodities  in  the  matter  of  relative  value  that  water 
does  to  other  substances  in  the  matter  of  specific  gravity. 

The  specific  gravity  or  relative  weight  of  water  being 
the  standard  of  specific  gravity  is  always  i ;  also  its  rel- 
ative volume  is  always  i.  If  a  substance  should  have 
twice  the  specific  gravity  of  water,  or  have  a  specific 
gravity  of  2,  then  it  would  have  a  relative  volume  of  1-2, 
that  is,  the  same  volume  would  be  twice  as  heavy  or  the 
same  weight  would  be  1-2  as  voluminous,  and  2  multi- 
plied by  1-2  is  equal  to  I. 

The  specific  gravity  of  any  substance  shows  how 
many  times  it  is  as  heavy  as  the  same  bulk  of  some  sub- 
stance taken  as  a  standard.  It  is  the  number  which 
multiplied  by  the  weight  of  an  equal  bulk  of  the  standard 
will  give  its  own  weight,  or  in  other  words,  it  is  the 
comparative  (relative)  weight  of  any  substance.  In 
ordinary  every-day  life  the  standard  taken  is  usually 
water.  The  specific  gravity  of  silver  as  compared  with 
water  is  10.5,  because  a  cubic  foot  (or  any  other  volume) 
of  silver  is  10  1-2  times  as  heavy  as  the  same  volume 
of  water,  while  cork  weighs  less  than  1-4  as  heavy  as 
\\ater,  its  specific  gravity  being  only  .240. 

The  force  of  gravity  is  invariable,  that  is,  the  density 
or  specific  gravity  or  relative  intensity  of  the  force  of 


28  I' A LICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    ()/•    VALUE. 

gravity  in  any  substance  is  invariable,  or  at  the  same 
p.1ace  it  is  the  same  for  all  time,  for  instance,  the  specific 
Gravity  of  mercury  at  the  sea  level  is  14  and  it  will 

&  ^  -• 

stay  14. 

Note. — There  is  a  difference  between  specific  gravity 
and  relative  value,  viz.,  the  specific  gravity  of  any  sub- 
stance, as  copper,  lead,  or' any  other,  is  constant  with 
time,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  to-morrow,  and 
subject  only,  as  it  may  be  said,  to  the  will  of  God. 
Whereas,  the  relative  value  of  a  commodity  varies  or  is 
different  at  different  times,  being  subject  to  the  laws  of 
trade  or  rather  to  the  varying  wants  of  man. 

This  variation  is  indicated  in  the  fluctuation  of  prices, 
and  is  due  to  changes  in  the  relative  power  of  value  in 
different  commodities,  and  even  the  intensity  or 
strength  of  the  value  of  the  standard  commodity 
(money),  though  always  mathematically  unity  or  i,  is 
itself  a  variable.  This  will  be  demonstrated  later.  And, 
though  in  this  demonstration  value  will  be  considered 
as  an  essence  or  force  residing  within  or  permeating 
all  commodities,  which  as  price  goes  up  becomes  rel- 
atively more  intense  or  stronger  and  per  contra  weaker 
as  it  goes  down,  or,  in  other  words,  which  is  variable  or 
different  at  different  times,  and  which  in  different  mer- 
chandise at  the  same  time  is  stronger  or  more  intense 
in  some  commodities  than  in  others — for  instance,  the 
force  of  value  residing  in  any  substance  selling  at  10 
cents  per  pound  is  considered  as  ten  times  as  intense 
as  that  residing  in  a  substance  selling  at  i  cent  per 
pound — nevertheless,  it  is  very  clear  that  value  does  not 
in  truth  and  in  fact  reside  in  or  permeate  the  merchan- 
dise, but  does  reside,  as  we  may  say,  in  the  mind  of  men, 
or  is  the  resultant  of  influences  over  many  minds. 

The 'fact  that  a  thing  sells  for  10  cents  per  pound 
shows  that  the  desire  of  man  for  i  pound  of  it  is  10 
times  as  strong  as  his  desire  for  I  pound  of  any  sub- 


VALUE   AND   PRICE    OR   RELATIVE    VALUE.          29 

stance  selling  at  i  cent  per  pound.  He  will  do  10  times 
as  much  labor  for  it,  and  man's  desire  in  trade  for  any- 
thing is  only  measured  by  the  labor  he  is  willing  to  do 
for  it  (or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  able  to  cause  to  be 
done  for  it),  for  desire  alone  without  the  offer  and  ac- 
ceptance of  labor  or  what  will  buy  labor,  does  not  af- 
fect prices.  Wishes  are  not  horses,  and  a  beggar's 
longings  in  the  market  place  would  never  fit  out  a 
cavalryman. 

Science  may  (and  probably  will)  show  later  that 
weight  is  not  an  inherent  quality  naturally  resident  in 
matter,  but  is  a  state  or  attribute  of  matter  due  to  some 
extraneous,  and,  to  us,  supernatural  cause,  as  we  say 
"the  will  of  God''  or  the  mind  of  the  Creator.  These 
things  are  now  subjects  only  of  intelligent  speculation 
or  scientific  guessing,  but  will  become  clearer  and 
clearer  as  science  advances.  Tt  seems  to  me  that  if  the 
motion  orbital  and  axial  of  all  celestial  bodies  were 
stopped,  then  there  would  be  no  weight,  no  gravic 
centers,  like  the  centers  of  the  earth,  of  the  sun,  etc. 
flatter  would  be  released  and  set  free,  homogeneously 
filling  all  space,  and  space  would  be  void  of  the  ponder- 
able substance  which  we  call  matter,  a  cold,  dark,  dead, 
ethereal  immensity  coinciding  with  the  description, 
"The  world  was  without  form  and  void,  and  darkness 
was  on  the  face  of  the  deep.''  The  worlds,  we  suppose, 
were  formed  of  the  volume  surrounding  each  gravic 
center,  each  one  taking  its  proper  place  and  quantity  of 
matter  or  volume  of  primal  ether.  Therefore  by  this 
reasoning  we  can  hardly  expect  that  any  element  will 
be  found  in  any  celestial  body  which  is  not  also  found 
in  the  earth,  and  if  it  should  happen  that  any  such  there 
be,  we  should  expect  such  elements  to  be  found  at  the 
centers  of  the  suns  and  larger  planets,  and  not  on  their 
surfaces  nor  among  the  asteroids,  etc. 

Possibly  the  time  of  rotation  around  its  axis  as  well 
as  of  the  journey  in  its  orbit  has  something  to  do  with 


30  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

weight  upon  any  celestial  body,  and  it  is  not  necessary 
to  suppose  that  because  a  planet  has,  for  instance,  10 
times  as  much  matter  as  the  earth,  therefore  any  object 
placed  upon  its  surface  would  have  10  times  the  weight 
that  it  has  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth. 

The  first  change  would  be  brought  about  by  motion 
and  simultaneously  intense  molecular  agitation  (heat), 
of  which  light  is  a  manifestation.  So  the  fiat,  "Let 
there  be  light,"  would  naturally  be  the  first  step  of  the 
change,  wherein  nothing  was  created  in  the  sense  of 
having  been  originated  or  made  of  nothing,  but  where 
the  state  was  changed  and  for  the  old  equilibrium  of 
darkness,  inertia,  and  death,  we  have  the  new  one  of 
light  and  life,  and  of  countless  planets  moving  in  har- 
mony to  the  tune  of  an  exact  mathematical  scheme. 
However  this  is  speculation.  Our  object  is  the  inves- 
tigation of  the  phenomena  of  value. 

Value  in  the  U.  S.  is  expressed  in  dollars,  or  measured 
by  dollars,  and  too  much  care  can  not  be  taken  to  dis- 
tinguish between  what  is  called  by  some  writers  the 
"thing  dollar"  and  the  "value  dollar." 

The  "thing  dollar"  is  an  absolute  and  unchangeable 
quantity  of  a  definite  material  which  is  25.8  grains  of 
the  minted  gold  of  the  U.  S.  and  called  a  dollar.  The 
'Value  dollar"  is  the  value  of  the  "thing  dollar,"  and  this 
amount  or  quantity  of  value  is  the  unit  of  value  used  for 
measuring  value  in  the  U.  S.  and  sometimes  called  a 
dollar's  worth. 

You  can  not  report  or  repeat  or  give  any  market 
price  without  mentioning  2  articles  of  merchandise,  but 
value  can  be  mentioned  without  mentioning  2  articles 
of  merchandise,  for  instance,  the  expression  "to  the 
value  of  $2,000"  means  as  much  value  as  is  contained  in 
2,000  gold  dollars.  You  can  not  report  or  give  spe- 


VALUE   AND   PRICE    OR   RELATIVE    VALUE.          31 

cific  or  relative  gravity  without  mentioning  two  sub- 
stances, to  say  that  the  specific  gravity  of  mercury  is  14, 
means  as  compared  with  the  standard,  water,  but  you 
can  mention  weight  without  mentioning  two  sub- 
stances, for  instance,  a  weight  of  2,000  pounds  means 
a  weight  2,000  times  as  heavy  as  the  standard  pound 
weight,  the  original  of  which  is  deposited  in  government 
archives  and  faithful  copies  of  which  are  numerous. 
E^ery  indefinite  or  infinite  thing  must  be  enumerated 
or  qnantitively  expressed  by  comparing  it  numerically 
with  some  definite  or  arbitrary  quantity  of  its  own  kind 
called  a  standard,  which  is  always  a  mathematical  unit 
or  unity.  Every  human  standard  is  arbitrary,  inas- 
much as  it  is  artificial  or  selected  or  wrought  by  man. 

Time  is  measured  by  definite  time,  as  i  hour. 

Length  is  measured  by  definite  length,  as  I  foot. 

Surface  is  measured  by  definite  surface,  as  i  sq.  foot. 

Volume  is  measured  by  definite  volume,  as  i  cubic 
foot. 

Weight  is  measured  by  definite  weight,  as  i  pound. 

Value  is  measured  by  definite  value,  as  i  dollar's 
worth. 

Relative  value  or  price  is  compared  by  a  comparative 
value,  which  is  the  value  of  money  per  unit  weight,  as 
$1.00  to  the  25.8  grains. 

Relative  weight  or  specific  gravity  is  compared  by  a 
comparative  weight,  which  is  the  weight  of  water  per 
unit  volume,  etc.,  as  i  gramme  to  the  cubic  centimeter. 

The  very  word  ''intensity"  or  "strength"  denotes 
comparison.  To  say  that  heat  is  very  intense  shows 
that  there  is  much  of  it  within  a  certain  space;  to  say  that 
a  man  is  strong  means  much  vital  energy  for  his  size  or 


32  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

\veight;  to  say  that  a  thing  in  trade  is  very  precious  is  to 
say  that  its  price  is  high  or  that  it  is  very  valuable  for  its 
weight.  But  we  do  not  seem  to  be  able  to  say  that  i 
length  or  i  surface  or  i  volume  or  i  minute  of  time,  is 
stronger  than  any  other  length,  surface,  volume,  or 
minute. 

Value  must  be  measured  by  measured  value;  it  can 
not  be  measured  by  metal.  The  standard  of  value 
must  be  of  value  itself  and  will  be.  So  ihat  the  gold 
monometallists  who  scream  for  a  "single  standard"  all 
over  the  world,  or  the  universal  single  standard,  will 
have  what  they  say  they  want,  whether  or  no,  and  could 
not  get  rid  of  it  if  they  tried,  whether  the  money  be  gold 
or  silver,  for  any  standard  value  will  necessarily  always 
be  of  value. 

The  measure  of  value  in  the  U.  S.  is  the  value  dollar, 
or  the  "dollar's  worth,"  being  always  the  value  of  25.8 
grains  of  the  minted  gold  of  the  United  States;  and  this 
is  always  true,  whether  gold  be  easy  or  difficult  to  obtain. 
While  the  prices  of  other  commodities  in  the  United 
States  fluctuate,  that  of  the  gold  dollar  never  does,  for 
it  can  not,  as  its  value  is  the  standard,  for  a  thing  com- 
pared with  itself  can  not  change,  for  it  can  be  neither 
larger  nor  smaller,  weaker  nor  stronger  than  itself. 

Of  value,  the  standard  of  value  must  universally  be; 
therefore,  the  expression  that  "25.8  grains  of  gold  shall 
be  the  unit  of  value,"  is  false  and  impossible,  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  to  the  contrary  notwithstand- 
ing. 

Part  of  the  first  article  of  the  new  monetary  law, 
intended  to  eternally  confirm  the  horror  of  gold  mono- 
metallism upon  the  long-suffering  and  patient  people  of 


VALUE   AND   PRICE    OR   RELATIVE    VALUE.          33 

the  United  States,  reads  as  follows,  'That  the  dollar  con- 
sisting of  25.8  grains  of  gold  9-10  fine  established  by 
section  3511  of  the  Revised  Statutes  (from  the  law  of 
1873)  shall  be  the  standard  unit  of  value."  A  law  com- 
manding an  impossibility  is  void,  and  as  to  the  inten- 
tion, it  is  against  public  morals  and  therefore  mani- 
festly counter  to  public  policy.  This  law  was  confirmed 
March  14,  1900. 

\Vhen  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  we  shall  call  the 
"value  dollars"  value  units  and  the  "thing  dollars"  we 
shall  call  money  units. 

A  value  unit  is  the  value  of  a  money  unit,  and  a 
money  unit  is  usually  called  in  Knglish  books  a  "money 
of  account"  and  sometimes  a  "unit  of  account." 

Accounts  are  kept  in  value  units  but  balances  must  be 
settled  in  money  units.  \  prosperous  business  is  one 
in  which  the  owners  are  increasing  their  possession  of 
value  or  gaining  in  value,  or  as  it  is  termed  "making 
money."  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  number  of  value  dol- 
lars in  any  country  may  exceed  the  thing  dollars  by 
millions  upon  millions,  and  such  is  the  fact  in  the  United 
States,  as  even  the  yards  of  cloth  exceed  the  combined 
length  of  all  the  yardsticks,  or  the  pounds  of  merchan- 
dise exceed  the  combined  weight  of  all  the  legal  pound 
\\eights  in  the  United  States. 

Debts  expressed  in  money  units  must  be  paid  in 
money  units  in  which  the  account  was  kept,  or  some- 
thing equivalent  or  as  "good,"  which  will  be  something 
uitli  which  these  can  be  obtained,  but  in  fact  the  obli- 
gation is  the  payment  of  the  actual  material  money 
units  themselves,  if  they  be  demanded,  even  though 
these  should  be  delivered  bv  the  United  States  Govern- 


34  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

713 ent  instead  of  the  primal  debtor,  as  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  should  keep  its  various  tokens,  either 
paper  or  metal,  at  par,  and  there  is  only  one  sure  way  of 
doing  this,  which  is  to  put  the  gold  up  for  these  metal 
and  paper  tokens  \vhenever  it  is  required.  For  this 
reason  what  we  call  simply  money,  which  is  the  gold  coin 
of  the  United  States,  is,  by  some,  often  called  "money 
of  ultimate  redemption,"  "primary  money,"  etc.,  as  such 
men  do  not  make  the  strict  distinction  that  we  do,  and 
they  recognize  paper  as  money  as  well  as  token  coins 
and  call  them  "credit  money." 

Strictly  speaking,  and  especially  for  the  purpose  of 
scientific  investigation,  we  do  not  recognize  anything  as 
money  in  the  United  States  except  its  minted  gold. 

"Credit  money"  we  would  not  call  money  at  all,  but 
regard  it  rather  as  the  sign  of  an  obligation,  and 
would  rather  call  it  "debit  money,"  or  the  confession 
that  money  is  due,  and  we  would  in  nowise  confound 
the  material  with  the  written  or  printed  obligation  to 
produce  it  any  more  than  we  would  confound  the  body 
of  the  prisoner  with  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 

No  quantity  of  value  can  be.  delivered  in  hand  unless 
it  be  delivered  in  material,  for  we  can  not  deliver  the 
soul  without  delivering  the  body.  This  does  not  mean 
but  that  certain  rights  are  valuable,  but  it  will  be  found 
that  these  rights  are  methods  of  obtaining  some  valu- 
able material,  very  frequently  by  taxing  it  out  of  the 
people,  as,  for  instance,  monopolies  of  various  sorts,  and 
very  frequently  in  these  the  future  is  enslaved  for  the 
benefit  of  some  company  of  men  for  50  or  99  or  100 
years  or  forever.  Our  people  tamely,  unquestion- 
ingly,  submit  to  such  outrages.  However,  this  subject, 


VALUE   AND   PRICE    OR   RELATIVE    VALUE.          35 

though  within  the  domain  of  the  science  of  value,  does 
not  bear  directly  on  the  discussion  concerning  the  nature 
of  value  and  the  function  of  money  which  this  treatise 
endeavors  to  elucidate  more  particularly  in  order  to 
show  the  first  and  most  prominent  and  general  wrong, 
the  head  and  front  of  other  wrongs,  which,  when  van- 
quished, will  leave  the  others  to  be  taken  up  and 
slaughtered  in  detail. 

Recurring  to  our  subject,  in  our  conception  any  true 
money  must  be  "sound"  money  and  must  be  "honest 
money,"  but  it  is  not  necessary  by  any  means  that  it 
should  be  gold  money,  for  a  silver  money  must  be  just 
as  "sound"  and  just  as  "honest"  and  a  good  deal  more 
conducive  to  the  interests  of  the  industrious  or  worthy 
world. 

Though  accounts  may  foot  up  to,  or  show  millions 
upon  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  "business/'  and  the 
balances  be  comparatively  small,  still  however  they  must 
be  settled  in  money  units  of  the  value  units  in  which 
tbe  account  is  kept.  If  the  account  is  kept  in  "value 
dollars"  or  value  units,  the  balance  must  be  paid  in 
money  units  or  money  dollars,  which  are  definite  un- 
changeable things,  or  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing 
in  something  acceptable  to  the  creditor,  which  will  us- 
ually be  something  with  which  the  money  units  may 
easily  be  obtained,  for  the  two,  while  the  account  was 
running,  were  practically  under  such  a  contract,  and  the 
one  who  came  out  debtor  might  have  resulted  creditor. 
This  account  was  run  under  a  practical  mutual  prear- 
rarigement,  which  should  be  lived  up  to  to  the  very  ul- 
timate letter.  This  is  the  moral  obligation;  \ve  are  not 
discussing  the  legal  status  of  insolvent  debtors,  nor 


36  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE   OF    VALUE. 

what  equity  might  direct  should  be  done  in  special  cases 
or  cases  of  special  hardship. 

Money  borrowed  is  the  same  as  any  other  material 
borrowed,  and  is  repaid  by  the  return  of  the  material 
borrowed,  arid  carries  with  it  no  further  obligation,  the 
political  economists  of  the  world  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding. There  is  no  obligation,  either  moral  or 
written,  to  make  that  commodity  more  or  less  valuable 
than  it  was  before,  and  those  debts  are  honestly  paid  by 
the  tender  of  the  material  borrowed,  whether  a  ton  of  it 
would  pay  a  scrub-woman  for  a  day's  labor  or  would' 
buy  a  nation.  Workingmen,  the  industry  of  the  nation, 
should  not  be  held  down  by  these  assistant  cutthroats, 
in  order  to  be  more  artistically  butchered.  An  ac- 
count may  have  on  each  side  items  or  charges  and  cred- 
its to  the  value  of  millions  and  exactly  balance,  not  a 
dollar  changing  hands,  but  this  is  no  argument  for  the 
gold  standard  or  for  any  other.  In  the  United  States 
"value  dollars"  or  value  units  in  debits  and  credits  are 
constantly  balanced  against  each  other  in  this  way  to 
the  extent  of  thousands  of  millions.  Thus  it  is  said  that 
"credit"  takes  the  place  of  money,  but  it  is  rather 
"debit;"  if  you  owre  me  10  millions  and  I  owe  you  10 
millions  our  accounts  balance,  neither  owes  the  other. 
So  it  is  in  a  running  account.  This  is  the  "credit"  sys- 
tem that  the  gold  monomeiallists  talk  about  in  saying 
that  the  greater  part  of  business  is  done  through 
"credit"  and  therefore  little  actual  money  is  needed, 
and  that  gold  is  plenty  enough  and  almost  too  cheap 
for  the  good  of  the  people.  The  "best  financial  opin- 
ion," or  the  opinion  of  the  most  prominent  financiers 
and  their  economists  in  the  great  colleges,  seems  to  be 


VALUE   AND   PRICE    OR   RELATIVE    VALUE.          37 

almost  unanimous  that  civilization,  honor,  honesty, 
progress,  commerce,  and  government  can  only  be 
built  up  upon  the  foreordained  gold  standard,  and  more 
bosh  that  passes  for  science  has  been  written  in  favor 
of  the  gold  standard  than  \vas  ever  written  in  favor  of 
any  other  economic  delusion  that  ever  took  possession 
of  the  minds  of  men. 

Now  as  the  gold  man  says  business  is  nearly  all  done 
on  "credit"  and  with  "forms  of  credit,"  and  that  the  lit- 
tle "actual"  money  ought  to  be  gold,  so  the  paper  man 
comes  forward  and  says  it  ought  all  to  be  done  on 
"credit,"  and  therefore  no  gold  money  is  needed,  not 
even  to  settle  balances  with,  just  "fiat."  The  govern- 
ment oniy  had  to  say,  through  the  agency  of  its  print- 
ing press  pand  bureau  of  financial  signature,  "Let  there 
be  money,"  and  there  would  have  been  (money),  and  if 
more  were  needed,  why,  more  "stamp  of  the  govern- 
ment" galore,  "legal  tender  for  all  debts,  both  public 
and  private." 

These  arguments  about  credit  neither  help  nor  injure 
the  gold  standard.  Value  evidently  is  the  medium  of 
exchange  and  is  accounted  in  "value  dollars"  or  value 
units,  each  of  which  always  is  the  value  of  a  money  unit. 

Business  would  be  done  or  commerce  carried  on  in 
this  manner  whether  gold  or  something  else  were  the 
commodity  of  standard  value  or  the  money.  If  all  the 
gold  in  the  world  should  instantly  sink  out  of  possible 
reach,  it  would  not  decrease  the  facility  of  commerce. 


CHAPTER    IL 
The  Theory  of  Value. 

We  propose  to  elucidate  or  make  clear  the  theory  of 
value  and  the  phenomena  of  the  price  or  prices  of  com- 
modities sold  by  weight  by  the  following  diagrams,  and 
in  explanation  let  us  say  that  value  may  be  imagined  as 
dissolved  in  various  commodities  in  different  propor- 
tions, price  or  relative  value  giving  the  comparative 
strength  of  each  solution.  Among  these  commodities 
is  money  itself,  which  is  the  standard  solution  or  the 
solution  of  standard  strength. 

These  solutions  vary  in  strength  among  themselves, 
and  the  same  commodity  has  more  and  less  value  dis- 
solved in  it  at  different  times  and  places.  This  fluctua- 
tion in  the  relative  strength  of  value  is  shown  by  the 
fluctuation  of  prices,  and  can  be  illustrated  by  a  con- 
sideration of  ordinary  chemical  solutions  of  different 
strength,  as,  for  instance,  salt  and  water. 

Let  us  take  a  certain  known  quantity  of  some  partic- 
ular perfect  solvent,  something  that  will  readily  take 
some  particular  other  thing  into  solution,  and  take  an 
accurately  ascertained  quantity  of  this  other  thing  or 
soluble  thing  (which  we  will  hereafter  call  the  soluble) 
and  put  it  into  our  measured  solvent,  dissolving  them 
thoroughly.  The  result  or  solution  will  be  homogen- 
eous, that  is,  samples  taken  from  the  top  will  be  exactly 
(38) 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  39 

as  strong  as  those  from  the  bottom  or  anywhere  else, 
and,  therefore,  equal  quantities  of  the  solution  contain 
equal  quantities  of  the  soluble.  Now  let  us  take  this  as 
our  standard  solution  or  solution  of  standard  strength 
by  which  to  compare  the  strength  of  other  solutions. 
Now  we  have  various  other  solvents,  in  each  of  which 
some  of  this  particular  soluble  is  dissolved,  and  we  as- 
sume that  we  are  provided  with  an  instrument  by  the 
use  of  which  we  may  unerringly  ascertain  the'  relative 
strength  of  each  solution  as  compared  to  the  strength 
of  the  standard  solution.  4 

Let  us  call  this  standard  strength,  or  the  strength  of 
this  standard  solution,  one,  or  unity,  and  other  solutions 
are  1-8,  i-io,  1-4,  etc.,  as  strong  as  the  particular  case 
may  happen  to  be. 

Let  us  divide  this  i,  or  the  relative  strength  of  this 
standard  solution,  into  100  parts  or  hundredths,  then 
the  relative  strength  of  the  standard  solution  is  100-100, 
and  the  relative  strength  of  the  solution  that  is  1-8  as 
strong  would  be  expressed  by  121-2  hundredths  or  it  is 
a  12  1-2  per  cent  solution,  and  the  relative  strength  of 
a  solution  that  is  1-4  as  strong,  would  be  25-100  or  it  is 
a  25  per  cent  solution. 

Now  let  us  call  this  standard  solution  A,  and  at  ran- 
dom take  six  other  solutions,  successively  marking  them 
B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  and  G,  and  after  trial  we  find  them 
respectively  to  be  i-S,  i-io,  1-4,  3-20,  1-5,  and  2-5  as 
strong  as  the  standard  solution,  or  they  are  12  1-2,  10, 
25,  15,  20,  and  40  per  cent  solutions.  Now  suppose 
that  by  perpendicular  lines  we  represent  this  compara- 
tive strength  as  it  exists  in  each  particular  case,  the 
height  above  the  common  zero  level  of  the  line  repre- 


40  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

renting  the  standard  solution  being  TOO,  and  the  heights 
being  to  heights  as  strengths  are  to  strengths.  If  this 
be  done  it  will  result  in  a  diagram,  which  we  have 
marked  No.  o,  representing  with  perfect  accuracy  the 
relative  strength  of  these  solutions. 

We  have  divided  the  length  of  the  standard  line  into 
100  parts  and  the  lengths  of  the  other  lines  representing 
various  relative  strengths,  naturally  take  their  proper 
height  from  the  base  or  zero  level,  which  is  the  level  of 
no  strength,  no  soluble  in  the  solvent,  no  solution. 

This  Diagram  0  represents  a  general  case,  from  which, 
by  certain  variations,  other  cases  are  originated  and 
back  to  which  they  are  referred.  It  is  a  point  of  begin- 
ning a  zero  case  or  initial  case  and  is  therefore  marked 
case  0,  and  is  a  type  from  which  all  the  others  are 
derived. 

CASE  L 

WHERE    THE    STRENGTH    OF    ONE    SOLUTION    IS    DOUBLED,    THE 
STANDARD  AND  ALL  OTHERS  REMAINING  AS  BEFORE, 

Suppose  we  take  the  solution  D,  and  double  its 
strength,  that  is,  put  as  much  more  of  the  soluble  into 
the  solvent  as  there  was  before;  now  Diagram  0  no 
longer  represents  the  relative  strength  of  the  solutions 
but  it  is  now  represented  by  diagram  i,  where  the  line 
D  is  tv/ice  as  long  as  it  was  before,  the  other  lines 
remaining  unchanged  as  among  themselves,  but  as 
compared  with  D  they  are  all  1-2  as  long  as  they  were 
before. 

CASE  H. 

WHERE  THE  STRENGTH  OF    EVERY  SOLUTION    BUT    THE    STAND- 
ARD   IS    DOUBLED,  THE    STANDARD    REMAINING 
OF  THE  SAME  STRENGTH- AS  BEFORE. 

Now,  operating  upon  an  example  of  the  typical  case 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  41 

0  illustrated  by  Diagram  0  (which  we  will  hereafter  refer 
to  as  the  ''initial  case"),  suppose  we  double  the  strength 
of  every  solution  except  the  standard;  the  result  is  then 
represented  with  perfect  faith  by  Diagram  2,  which 
speaks  for  itself. 

CASE  IIL 

WHERE     THE     STRENGTH    OF    THE    STANDARD     SOLUTION    ONLY 
IS  DOUBLED. 

Take  an  example  of  the  initial  case,  Diagram  0,  and 
double  the  strength  of  the  standard  only,  the  others 
not  being  interfered  with,  the  relation  will  then  be  truly 
represented  by  Diagram  3. 

CASE  IV. 

\\HKKK  TIIK  STRENGTH  OF  THE  STANDARD  AND  THE  STRENGTH 
OF  EVERY  OTHER  SOLUTION  BUT  ONE  IS  DOUBLED. 

Take  samples  of  the  solutions  of  the  initial  case,  and, 
making  an  exception  of  D,  with  which  we  do  not  inter- 
fere, double  the  strength  of  all  the  other  solutions, 
including-  the  standard.  This  state  of  relativity  is  faith- 
fully represented  by  Diagram  4,  where  D  is  the  solution, 
whose  strength  has  not  been  changed,  but  whose  rela- 
tive strength  is  one-half  of  what  it  was  before. 

CASE  V. 

WHERE   THE    STRENGTH    OF    EVERY    SOLUTION,    STANDARD 
INCLUDED,  IS  DOUBLED. 

Take  samples  of  the  solutions  of  the  initial  case  and 
double  the.  quantity  of  soluble  in  each  solution;  this 
state  of  relativity  is  represented  by  Diagram  5,  a  coun- 
terpart of  Diagram  0;  nevertheless,  it  is  a  true  state- 
ment of  the  relative  strength  of  these  solutions,  al- 


42  ITALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

though  in  an  equal  quantity  of  any  particular  solvent 
there  is  twice  as  much  soluble  as  there  was  before. 

CASE  VI. 

WHERE  ONE    SOLUTION  IS  MADE  WEAKER,  THE    STANDARD  AND 
OTHERS  REMAINING  OF  THE  SAME  STRENGTH. 

We  will  suppose  that  we  can  abstract  the  soluble  from 
the  solvent  as  easily  as  we  can  add  it  to  it. 

Taking  a  sample  of  the  initial  case,  suppose  we  ab- 
stract exactly  one-half  of  the  soluble  from  the"  solution 
D,  the  resulting  interrelationship  of  strength  will  be  ex- 
actly represented  by  Diagram  6. 

CASE  VII. 

WHERE    ALL  OF    THE   SOLUTIONS    EXCEPT    THE    STANDARD    ARE 
MADE  TWICE  AS  WEAK  OR  ONE- HALF  AS  STRONG. 

If  we  take  a  sample  of  the  initial  case  and  abstract 
one-half  of  the  soluble  from  every  solution  except  the 
standard  solution,  then  the  resulting  relationship  of  the 
strength  of  the  solutions  will  be  faithfully  represented 
by  Diagram  7. 

CASE  VIII. 

WHERE     THE     STANDARD     SOLUTION     IS     MADE     WEAKER      AND 
THE  OTHERS  REMAIN  OF  THE  SAME  STRENGTH  AS  BEFORE. 

If,  taking  a  sample  of  the  initial  case  Diagram  0,  we 
extract  or  abstract  1-2  of  its  strength  from  the  standard 
solution,  the  resulting  relative  strength  of  the  solutions 
will  be  faithfully  represented  by  Diagram  8. 

CASE  IX. 

WHERE  THE  STRENGTH  OF    THE  STANDARD    SOLUTION  AND  THE 

STRENGTH  OF  ALL  THE  OTHER  SOLUTIONS  BUT  ONE, 

IS  WEAKENED. 

Take  samples  of  the  solutions  of  the  general  case  of 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  43 

Diagram  0  and,  excepting  D,  take  out  exactly  one-half 
of  the  strength  of  the  solutions  (or,  excepting  D,  ab- 
stract one-half  of  the  soluble  from  each  of  the  solutions), 
and  we  have  the  relative  state  of  the  strength  of  the  dif- 
ferent solutions  truly  represented  by  Diagram  9. 

CASE  X. 

WHERE    THE    STRENGTH    OF    ALL    THE    SOLUTIONS,    STANDARD 
INCLUDED,  IS  WEAKENED. 

Take  samples  of  the  solutions  of  the  initial  case  of 
Diagram  0,  and  abstract  1-2  of  the  soluble  from  each 
oi.'  them:  the  resulting  relationship  of  their  various 
strength  will  be  exactly  shown  by  Diagram  10. 


44  VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE   OF   VALUE. 


IQQ 


SO 
4-5 
40 

35 
30 

25- 
2C 
15 
10 

5 


A 

100 


B 


c 

10 


D 

25 


F 

20* 


a 

4-0 


This  diagram  illustrates  the  relative  strength  of  each  one  of  this 
set  of  solutions  as  compared  to  the  strength  of  the  standard  solution, 
A;  or,  as  applied  to  commerce,  represents  the  price  or  relative  value 
or  relative  purchasing  power  of  each  one  of  this  set  of  commodities 
as  compared  to  the  purchasing  power  of  the  standard  commodity  A 
(money).  By  subjecting  this  set  of  solutions  or  commodities  to 
certain  changes,  the  succeeding  illustrative  diagrams  are  derived. 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALVE. 


45 


so 

45 
40 
35 
30 
25 
20 

IS 
10 

5 


B 


15 


4-0 


Here  the  strength   (or  purchasing  power)  of  D  only  has  been 
doubled;  the  strength  of  none  of  the  others  has  been  changed. 


46  VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE   OF   VALUE. 


100 


50 
4-5 
4-0 
35 
30 
25 
20 
IS 
10 
5 


A 

IOO 


B 

25 


c 

20 


0 

50 


F 

40 


G 

80 


Here  the  strength  of  every  solution  but  the  standard  has  been 
doubled.  The  standard,  A,  remains  of  the  same  strength,  as  in  Dia- 
gram o. 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE. 


47 


100 


50 
45 
40 
35 
30 
25 
20 
15 
10 
5 


A 

100 


B 


F 

10 


Q 

20 


Here  the  strength  of  the  standard  only  has  been  doubled, 
shows  B  at  "  16  to  i.") 


(This 


48 


VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 


100 


50  . 
4-5  . 
40  . 

35  ; 

30  . 
25  . 

20  . 
15 

10 
5 


4 


A 

«oo 


B 

12* 


c 

10 


D 

12'* 


F 

20 


Here  the  strength  of  every  one  but  D  has  been  doubled,  D  re- 
maining of  the  same  strength  as  in  Diagram  o  (but  not  of  the  same 
relative  strength  as  in  Diagram  o). 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE. 


49 


too 


so 

45 
4-0    . 

35  . 
30  . 
25  . 
.20  . 
15  . 
'0  . 

5      . 


A 

JOO 


B 

12'* 


F 

20 


G 

4V 


Here  the  strength  of  every  one  has  been  doubled.  (They  are 
each  twice  as  strong  as  before,  though  their  relative  strength  is  un- 
changed.) 

4 


50 


VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 


so 

•45 
4O 
35 
30 
25 
20 

15 
10 

S 


m 


A 

JOO 


B 

J2!fe 


C 

10 


D 

I2'>i 


F 

20 


Here  the  strength  of   D  has  been  reduced   one-half,  while    the 
strength  of  none  of  the  others  has  been  changed. 


THE  THEORY  OP  VALUE. 


51 


100 


50 
45 
40 
35 
30  . 
25  . 
20  . 
IS  . 
IO  . 
5 


IOC 


I I 


B 


20 


Here  the  strength  of  every  one  but  the  standard,  A,  has  been  re- 
duced one-half.     (This  shows  B  at  "  16  to  i.") 


52  VAUCS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 


so 

4-5 

40 
35 
30 
25 
20 
15 
10 
5 


B 

25 


c 

20 


D 

so 


E 

30 


F 
40 


a 

80 


Here  the  strength  of  A  only  has  been  reduced  one-half. 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE. 


53 


100 


60 
4-5 
40 
35 
30 
25 
20 
t5 
10 
5 


A 

100 


B 

12* 


D 

so 


F 

20 


Q 

4-0 


Here  the  strength  of  every  one  but  D  has  been  reduced  one-half, 
D  remaining  of  the  same  strength  as  before  (but  not  of  the  same 
relative  strength). 


54 


VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 


100 


so   _ 

45  _ 
40  „ 
35  |_ 

30 

25 

20 

(5 

10 

5 


B 


25 


15 


20 


Here  the  strength  of  every  one  has  been  reduced  one-half.  The.y 
are  each  one-half  as  strong  as  before,  though  their  relative  strength 
(or  price  or  relative  value)  is  unchanged. 


CHAPTER  III 
Theory  of  Value   (Continued). 

Let  us  carefully  begin  again  and  take  some  particu- 
lar material  (appropriate  commodity)  in  which  our  par- 
ticular soluble  (value)  is  dissolved.  The  solution  is  ho- 
mogeneous, that  is,  weight  for  weight  it  is  of  equal  value, 
or  is  all  alike ;  for  homogeneity  of  material  means  homo- 
geneity of  value.  Now  let  us  take  this  particular  sol- 
vent as  our  sltiiuiard  .s-o//7//f,  and  as  we  find  it  with  our 
particular  soluble  mine  already  dissolved  in  it,  we  will 
adopt  this  particular  solution  (commodity)  as  our 
standnnl  xulttiion;  and,  to  distinguish  it  from  all  other 
substances  containing  value  in  solution,  otherwise 
known  as  commodities,  we  will  call  it  money.  It  is  the 
value  of  money  that  is  standard,  and  its  price  is  always 
one,  o--  unity ;  ii  matters  not  how  the  value  it  contains 
be  increased  or  diminished,  mathematically  its  price  does 
not  vary,  for  it  is  always  unity,  being  standard,  but  this 
increase  or  diminution  of  the  quantity  of  value  in  the 
standard  may  be  shown  in  the  fluctuation  of  the  prices 
of  other  commodities. 

Now  we  have  various  other  different  solvents  (ma- 
terials), in  each  of  which  this  particular  soluble  (value) 
is  dissolved  to  form  various  solutions  (commodities), 
and  we  have  an  instrument  (markets)  which  unerringly 
reports  the  relative  strength  (gives  the  price)  of  all  of 

(55) 


56  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

these  solutions  as  compared  to  the  strength  (price,  or 
relative  value)  of  the  standard  solution  (money). 

It  tells  the  proportion  of  value  to  weight  in  commod- 
ity as  compared  with  the  proportion  of  value  to  weight 
in  money,  or,  in  other  words,  tells  the  relative  purchas- 
ing power  of  each  commodity  as  compared  to  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  money.  (As  we  have  shown  before, 
this  is  exactly  what  prices  do.) 

Now  suppose  that  we  divide  this  one,  or  unity 
(which  is  the  strength  of  the  standard),  into  loO  parts 
or  hundredths,  its  strength  will  be  represented  by  100 
hundredths,  and  suppose  we  mark  this  standard  solu- 
tion A,  and,  for  example,  take  six  other  solutions  (com- 
modities) at  random  and  successively  mark  them  B,  C, 
D,  E,  F,  and  G,  and  successively  find  them  to  be  1-8, 
i-io,  1-4,  3-20.  1-5,  and  2-5  as  strong  (valuable)  as  the 
standard  (money),  or,  respectively  they  are  i2l/2,  10,  25, 
15,  20,  and  40  per  cent  solutions  (commodities).  Now 
suppose  that  by  perpendicular  lines  standing  upon  a 
level  of  zero  height  we  represent  this  comparative 
strength  as  it  exists  in  each  particular  commodity.  The 
height  of  the  line  representing  the  strength  or  purchas- 
ing power  of  money  being  100,  the  height  of  each  other 
line  bears  the  same  proportion  to  that  height  as  the 
strength  or  relative  value  of  each  commodity  bears  to 
the  relative  value  of  money. 

When  we  have  done  this  we  will  have  Diagram  0 
representing  with  perfect  accuracy  the  relative  value  ex- 
isting among  all  these  commodities,  money  included. 
They  all  have  taken  their  proportionate  heights  from  the 
base  or  zero  level,  which  is  the  level  of  no  value,  no 
strength,  no  height,  substance  worth  0. 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  57 

A  substance  possessing  no  value  is  not  a  commodity, 
its  value  (for  it  has  none),  being  absolute  0,  can  not  be 
used  as  a  standard  of  relative  value,  and  could  not  be  a 
money  any  more  than  could  anything  possessing  no 
weight  be  used  as  a  standard  of  specific  gravity  or  rel- 
ative weight. 

If  we  had  a  Joshua  empowered  to  make  time  stand 
still,  the  scale  of  prices  indicated  in  Diagram  0  might 
represent  the  state  of  the  market  forever,  but  as  things 
are,  with  the  progress  of  man  and  the  surge  of  advance, 
the  tendency  to  discovery,  invention,  and  improvement, 
we  can  not  freeze  affairs  into  any  such  rigidity,  although 
this  would  1)0  the  elysium  of  economic  felicity  as  taught 
generally  by  the  scholastics  of  the  art  of  gold  money 
advocacy. 

Let  us  suppose  various  changes  to  take  place  in  the 
quantity  of  value  existing  in  the  commodities  of  Dia- 
gram 0,  and  let  us  represent  by  diagram  the  result  in 
each  case.  Each  case  below  will  be  a  direct  derivative 
of  the  general  case  illustrated  in  Diagram  0,  which  is  a 
chart  of  relative  value,  and,  in  fact,  corresponds  or  is 
analogous  to  any  market  report,  and  is  a  true  scale  of 
prices.  In  each  particular  case  we  will  operate  upon  the 
commodities  of  Diagram  0,  and  refer  each  change  as  it 
occurs  to  Diagram  0,  which  represents  a  general  case  or 
primal  case  or  initial  state:  and  we  will  call  it  the  initial 
case. 

CASE  I. 

WHERE  THE  VALUE  IN  ONE  COMMODITY  IS  INCREASED,  WHILE 
MONEY  (THE  STANDARD)  AND  THE  REST  REMAIN  AS  BEFORE. 

Let  us  suppose  the  quantity  of  value  in  commodity 


58  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

(solution)  D   to  double,   while  the  value  in  the  other 
commodities  remains  unchanged. 

The  resulting  state  of  affairs  is  represented  in  Dia- 
gram i,  where  the  line  D  is  twice  as  high  as  it  was 
before,  the  others  remaining  unchanged.  All  the  others 
among  themselves  are  exactly  what  they  were  before, 
but,  as  compared  to  D,  they  are  only  J  as  high  as  they 
were  before,  while  D  is  twice  as  high  as  it  was  before. 
This  shows  an  important  truth,  viz.,  that  no  single 
price  (relative  value)  can  rise  unless  the  value  of  money 
falls  in  the  same  ratio,  nor  fall  unless  the  value  of 
money  rises  in  the  same  ratio,  which  proves  that  gold 
money  is  no  more  stable  than  any  commodity  with 
which  it  may  be  compared.  The  value  contained  in 
money  may  change,  but  its  price  is  constant  and  never 
changes;  it  is  always  worth  the  same  per  dollar  or  per 
pound. 

CASE  IL 

WHERE  THE  VALUE    (COMMAND  OVER  LABOR)  IN  ALL  THE  COM- 
MODITIES BUT  THE  STANDARD  (MONEY)  IS  INCREASED. 

Take  the  commodities  of  the  initial  case,  and,  except- 
ing the  standard  (money),  put  as  much  more  value  (com- 
mand over  the  services  of  mankind)  into  each  of  them  as 
they  had  before,  then  Diagram  2  faithfully  represents 
the  interexisting  relation  of  value.  Any  one  of  these 
except  the  standard  is  just  twice  as  hard  to  get  as  it  was 
before,  or  buys  twice  as  much  labor  per  pound  or  per 
any  unit  weight. 

CASE   IIL 

WHERE  THE  VALUE  IN  THE    MONEY  ONLY  IS  INCREASED. 

Suppose  that  in  the  initial  case  you  should  double  the 


r 


THE    THEORY    OP    VALUE. 

value  in  the  money  only.  The  result  is  represented  in 
Diagram  3,  in  which  the  height  of  the  standard  is  ex- 
actly what  it  was  before  (as  it  always  is,  for  it  can  not 
differ  as  measured  in  or  by  itself);  nevertheless,  the 
height  of  the  standard  as  compared  to  each  of  the  other 
lines  is  just  t  \\ice  what  it  was  before.  It  is  a  faithful 
market  report  or  price  list,  and  a  true  picture  of  the 
relative  value  (or  price)  of  all  these  commodities. 

CASE  IV. 

WHERE,  EXCEPTING  ONE  COMMODITY,  YOU  INCREASE  THE  VALUE 
IN  THE  STANDARD  AND  THE  REST. 

Take  the  commodities  of  Diagram  0,  and,  excepting 
n  >  in  nn>  .-/»'///  I),  double  the  value  in  every  one  of  them,  and 
you  will  have  in  Diagram  4  a  faithful  representation  of 
the  relationship  of  the  force  of  value  or  purchasing 
power  as  it  now  resides  in  these  commodities. 

It  is  a  faithful  market  report  or  scale  of  prices. 

CASE  V. 

WHERE  THE  VALUE  IN  EVERY  COMMODITY,  MONEY  INCLUDED, 

IS    INl'KKASED. 

Taking  the  primal  case  of  Diagram  0,  let  us  add  as 
much  value  to  each  commodity  as  it  contained  before, 
that  is,  double  the  value  in  each  of  them,  money  in- 
cluded. This  relative  state  of  value  is  faithfully  repre- 
sented in  Diagram  5.  It  is  the  same  in  appearance  as 
Diagram  0,  and  the  prices  are  exactly  the  same.  It  is  a 
popular  fallacy  that  these  two  sets  of  prices  must  repre- 
sent the  same  state  of  affairs,  the  same  public  prosperity, 
the  same  sort  of  ''times,"  but  they  do  not.  Diagram  5 
is  a  case  of  ''harder  times"  than  Diagram  0,  but  prices 
are  exactly  the  same  and  are  faithfully  reported;  so,  con- 


60  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

trary  to  much  public  opinion,  with  the  same  prices  there 
may  be  "good,"  "moderate/"'  or  "hard"  times.  We  shall 
try  to  explain  this  later.  The  "best  times"  is  the  ability 
to  get  things  for  the  least  work. 

CASE  VI. 

WHERE    ONE    COMMODITY    ONLY    IS    MADE     WEAKER,     OR    TO 

CONTAIN  LESS  VALUE  THAN  IT  DID  BEFORE,   OR  BUY 

LESS  LABOR  PER  UNIT  WEIGHT  THAN 

IT  DID  BEFORE. 

Acting  upon  the  initial  set  of  prices  represented  by 
Diagram  0,  take  the  commodity  D  only  and  abstract 
one-half  of  its  (soluble)  value.  This  state  of  the  rela- 
tion of  the  values  is  faithfully  represented  by  Diagram  6. 

CASE  VII. 

WHERE     EVERY    COMMODITY    BUT    MONEY    IS    WEAKENED,     OR 
HAS  ITS  VALUE  DECREASED. 

Leaving  the  value  in  money  intact,  take  one-half  the 
value  out  of  the  other  commodities  of  case  0,  represented 
by  Diagram  0.  (It  costs  one-half  the  labor  to  acquire 
them  per  unit  weight  that  it  did  before;  they  buy  half  as 
much  labor  per  unit  weight  as  they  did  before.)  The 
resulting  relationship  of  value  is  faithfully  depicted  in 
Diagram  7,  where  money  is  relatively  twice  as  strong 
as  it  was  before,  but  is  really  of  the  same  strength  as 
measured  in  heart-beats  or  vital  power  or  labor. 

CASE  VIE. 

CASE  WHERE  THE  VALUE  PERMEATING  MONEY  IS  DIMINISHED, 

OR  MONEY  BUYS  LESS  LABOR  PER  MONEY  UNIT,   OTHER 

COMMODITIES  REMAINING  UNCHANGED. 

Take  the  zero  case  of  Diagram  0  and  abstract  from 
money  one-half  of  its  value,  and  Diagram  8  will  faith- 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  61 

fully  represent  the  resulting  relative  strength  of  value 
among  the  commodities. 

CASE  EX. 

WHERE    THE  VALUE  IN    THE    STANDARD    AND    IN    ALL    OTHER 
COMMODITIES  EXCEPTING  ONE  IS  DECREASED. 

Take  the  initial  case  represented  in  Diagram  0,  and, 
supposing  that  we  except  D  from  any  change  in  its 
value  (control  of  human  effort),  and  we  take  away  from 
each  one  of  the  others  one-half  of  its  value,  we  have 
the  relative  state  of  the  market  faithfully  depicted  in 
Diagram  9. 

CASE  X. 

WHERE  THE   VALUE   (COST   IN   LABOR   TO  THE   LABORING 

WORLD)  OF  ALL  COMMODITIES,  STANDARD 

INCLUDED,  IS  DECREASED. 

Taking  the  commodities  of  Diagram  0,  suppose  we 
take  one-half  of  its  value  out  of  each  and  every  com- 
modity, monc}  of  course  included. 

\Vt  will  then  have  the  resulting  interexistent  relative 
value  faithfully  reported  in  Diagram  10 — a  diagram  ex- 
actly the  same  as  Diagram  0,  but  representing  an 
entirely  different  state  of  mundane  affairs;  for  here,  as 
regarding  these  commodities,  the  purchasing  power  of 
the  laboring  man  has  been  exactly  doubled  and  is  ex- 
actly four  times  as  great  as  in  Diagram  5,  and  he  is 
indefinitely  or  infinitely  happier;  for  we  know  of  no 
mathematically  exact  measure  for  pleasure. 

In  fact,  it  is  a  rule  of  Valics,  or  the  Science  of  Value, 
that  the  purchasing  power  of  laboring  man  (industry) 
as  regards  any  commodity  weakens  directly  as  its  value 
increases. 


62  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

This  purchasing  power  of  laboring  man  is  utility  to 
humanity;  and  it  is  no  good  argument  to  say  that  labor- 
ing men  are  "well  enough  off"  because  they  may  be 
"better  off"  than  they  were  at  some  past  time.  Polit- 
ical Economy  has  no  standard  but  justice,  right,  truth, 
perfection,  and  will  advance  as  long  as  she  can  discover 
error,  and  mankind  will  advance  as  it  abandons  the 
practise  of  error,  or  quits  living  under  false  theory. 


TTO  ':TY 


CHAPTER  IV, 
Theory  of  Value  (Concluded). 

EXPLANATION  OF  DIAGRAMS. 
CASE  I. 

As  compared  with  Ca^e  0,  is  a  case  where  you  make 
one  commodity  stronger  in  value,  or  contain  more 
value,  or  buy  more  labor,  than  it  did  before,  or  make 
it  harder  for  labor  to  obtain  than  it  was  before.  This 
does  not  benefit  the  community,  and  is  a  direct  injury 
to  those  who  use  the  commodity;  this  happens  through 
any  monopoly  whereby  its  price  is  raised  or  the  diffi- 
culty of  its  acquisition  by  labor  is  increased.  This  may 
be  caused  by  a  special  taritt,  a  trust,  or  a  special  privi- 
lege of  some  sort. 

CASE  IL 

Illustrated  by  Diagram  2,  represents  a  case  like  the 
above,  only  it  includes  more,  and,  consequently,  its 
effects  are  worse,  as  it  is  a  case  of  a  general  increase 
in  the  prices  of  commodities,  except,  of  course,  money, 
whose  price  never  changes.  Money  is  just  as  hard 
to  get  as  it  was  before,  but  all  other  things,  the 
necessities  and  luxuries  of  life,  are  harder  to  get. 
"Living  is  high."  Provisions  are  "dear,"  as  they  cost 
much  vital  power,  perhaps  of  the  best  beloved.  It 
means  less  general  happiness,  and  advancing  ''hard 

(63) 


64  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE   OF    VALUE. 

times."  Public  indebtedness  is  harder  to  pay.  The 
workingman  is  told  that  he  is  too  extravagant;  that  he 
must  practise  more  economy,  and  work  harder;  must 
quit  aping  his  "superiors/'  and  leave  extravagance  to 
his  "betters."  This  state  of  affairs  would  result  from 
a  sweeping  general  increase  in  the  difficulty  of  acquisi- 
tion of  all  commodities  excepting  money,  and,  for 
instance,  may  be  partly,  at  lease,  brought  about  by  a 
sweeping  general  high  tariff  or  by  a  state  of  partial 

siege. 

CASE  HI. 

The  third  case  is  where  the  standard,  or  money,  is 
made  stronger,  that  is,  contains  more  value,  is  harder 
on  the  average  for  labor  to  obtain,  or  buys  more  labor, 
while  other  commodities  remain  as  before,  or  buy  the 
same  labor,  her  unit  weight,  that  they  did  before. 

if  we  make  money  just  twice  as  hard  to  earn,  or  have 
twice  the  value  it  did  before,  while  other  commodities 
remain  as  they  were,  it  would  then  buy  just  twice  the 
commodities  per  pound  or  per  dollar.  The  hardship 
comes  011  in  the  matter  of  debts  or  contracts  for  the 
delivery  of  gold  material.  The  imposts  or  taxes 
(whether  they  be  collected  directly  for  the  government 
or  whether  they  be  interest  paid  to  individuals)  for  this 
purpose  may  be  the  same  in  quantity,  but  they  cost 
twice  the  labor  to  obtain,  and  will  buy  twice  the  com- 
modities and  twice  the  labor  of  men  that  they  did  be- 
fore. It  benefits  the  bondholding  and  annuitant  class 
at  the  expense  of  labor.  The  large  herd  fed  by  enforced 
charity  wax  fatter;  the  innocent  (Labor)  who  blindly 
feeds  them  sutlers,  while  progress,  or  the  coming  of  the 
glory  of  the  human  race,  is  retarded. 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  65 

Prices  are  apparently  lower,  in  this  case  one-half  of 
what  they  were  before.  Each  article  or  commodity, 
excepting  money,  costs  the  same  labor  per  pound  that 
it  did  before,  while  money  costs  twice  the  labor  per 
pound  or  per  dollar  that  it  did  before;  so  the  same 
amount  of  labor  gets  half  the  money  it  did  before.  It 
is  (especially  in  a  condition  of  high  monetary  indebt- 
edness) a  state  of  high  tension  or  hard  times.  Under 
gold  monometallism,  the  value  of  gold,  from  interest 
and  increasing  obligations,  is  enhanced,  while  other 
trusts  do  what  they  can  to  increase  the  value  of  other 
commodities.  Political  economists,  especially  the  gold 
standardists  of  college  chairs,  in  order  to  calm  the 
diffident  questions  of  inquiring  industry,  usually  reason 
thus:  they  say  that  if  money  be  twice  as  hard  to  get, 
and  other  commodities  just  as  hard  to  get  as  they  were 
before,  then  lor  the  same  money  you  buy  twice  as  much 
of  other  things,  or,  in  other  words,  for  the  same  labor 
you  buy  exactly  the  same  commodities  you  did  before; 
and,  therefore,  the  laboring  world,  or  labor,  is  just 
exactly  as  well  off  as  it  was  before.  This  is  untrue,  for 
labor  pays  all  debts,  national,  state,  municipal,  corpo- 
rate, and  private;  and  this  must  be  taken  out  of  the 
excess  beyond  the  necessity  to  support  life;  and  this 
gold  is  twice  as  hard  to  get,  and  buys  twice  as  much  for 
the  fellow  that  gets  it. 

CASE  IV. 

Here,  with  the  exception  of  D  Diagram  4,  all  com- 
modities, including  money,  contain  more  value,  or  are 


66  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

harder  for  labor  to  get,  than  they  were  in  the  initial 
case. 

None  of  these  denote  advance;  on  the  contrary, 
they  all  denote  retrogression,  except  D,  which  is  just 
as  hard  to  earn  as  it  was  before,  but  as  far  as  prices  are 
concerned,  they  are  just  what  they  were  before,  except- 
ing D,  which  is  cheaper  and  apparently,  though  not 
really,  easier  to  get  than  it  was  before,  as  its  price  is  one- 
half  of  what  it  was  before. 

As  compared  with  the  initial  case  of  Diagram  0,  it  is 
a  case  of  harder  times;  tighter,  scarcer  money;  cheaper 
men. 

CASE  V. 

Where  the  value  (cost  in  labor)  of  money  and  of  all 
the  commodities  is  uniformly  increased.  Money  is 
harder  to  get,  every  other  commodity  harder  to  get. 
If  we  double  the  value  in  every  case,  money  costs  twice 
the  labor  to  get  that  it  did  before;  so  does  every  other 
commodity;  but  prices  are  the  same.  It  is  ruinous  to 
the  industrious  world,  and  a  case  of  benefit  to  the  bond- 
holders and  increase  of  burden  to  bondsmen.  If  con- 
tinued, it  is  the  prelude  to  dark  ages,  stagnation,  decay, 
mundane  gloom,  general  "hard  times"  and  unre- 
quited effort  on  the  one  hand,  and  extravagance  and 
profligacy  on  the  other.  Ennobling  influences  lessen, 
men  become  cheap,  women  cheaper,  money  dear,  the 
struggle  for  existence  becomes  cruel,  and  in  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,  the  sneaking,  faithless,  time-serving,  cun- 
ning, cruel,  greedy,  and  treacherous  element  increases, 
and  the  tendency  is  for  Frankness,  Honesty,  Honor, 
Liberty,  Kindness,  and  Humanity  to  die  out.  Still  this 


THE    THEORY    OF  .VALUE.  67 

is  the  state  of  affairs  advocated  as  being  the  best  by 
almost  every  government  in  power  in  the  world. 

Many  men,  probably  well-wishers  of  their  country, 
but  misguided,  extol  what  they  call  the  "stability" 
brought  about  by  the  gold  standard.  It  is  but  the 
stability  of  the  grip  which  Profligacy  has  upon  the 
throat  of  Industry,  or  which  Worthlessness  has  upon 
the  end  of  the  halter  around  "the  neck  of  the  future." 

A  few  men  roll  in  affluence;  the  generality  become 
slowly  debased,  cruel,  degraded;  for  poverty  or  distress 
is  in  fact  a  fruitful  source  of  crime.  It  means  decrease 
in  the  purchasing  power  of  the  laboring  world,  or  "hard 
times,"  and,  with  a  high  state  of  general  indebtedness, 
combined  with  the  quality  of  the  accelerated  increase 
thereof,  Labor  is  placed  in  pawn  or  peonage  for  the 
payment  of  this,  being  the  only  thing  that  can  really 
be  taxed,  being,  after  all,  the  "money  of  ultimate 
redemption,"  the  property  of  ultimate  taxation. 

This  high  tension,  or  hard  times,  caused  by  individual 
monopolization,  is  the  reason  for  the  "downfall  of 
nations"  (for  if  a  nation  pursues  the  right  policy  it  can 
never  really  fall),  and  is  usually  shown  by  great  popular 
unrest  and  discontent  (being  a  sign  of  the  vitality  of  the 
spirit  of  the  people),  with  war,  revolution,  and  social 
upheaval,  the  downfall  of  some  real  or  imagined  oppres- 
sion, and  the  building  anew,  amid  destruction  wrought 
by  violence  and  inhumanity;  if  not,  the  people  sink 
tamely,  and  become,  on  the  one  hand,  masters  without 
true  nobility,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  quiescent  slaves, 
indifferent  to,  or  ignorant  of,  their  own  degradation, 
ignoble  and  venial,  without  true  patriotism,  ascribing 
their  abasement  to  the  will  of  Heaven,  or  to  causes 


68  VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

declared  to  be  irremediable,  later  to  be  conquered  by  a 
people  of  superior  or  less  servile  mould. 

This  is  the  influence  of  the  gold  monometallism  hor- 
ror and  its  concomitant  abuses,  but  this  tendency  is 
opposed  by  improvements  in  manufacture  and  progress 
in  methods  and  means  in  many  directions. 

CASE   VI. 

Is  a  case  where  you  make  one  commodity  weaker  or 
decrease  its  value  or  command  over  the  services  of  men. 

It  benefits  all  who  use  the  commodity,  brings  some 
ease  and  probably  happiness  to  all  who  need  it,  and  is 
decidedly  an  improvement.  This  is  shown  in  Diagram 
6,  which  is  the  same  in  appearance  as  Diagram  4,  though 
representing  really  a  very  different  state  of  public  pros- 
perity. These  two  diagrams  show,  as  do  other  dia- 
grams, two  ways  of  changing  price. 

CASE  vn. 

Is  a  case  where  you  make  all  the  commodities  but 
money  weaker  (contain  less  value,  be  easier  for  the 
working  world  to  obtain). 

This  benefits  the  useful  or  industrious  world,  which 
gets  commodities  for  less  money  than  before,  and  gets 
the  same  money  for  the  same  labor  it  took  before,  there- 
fore, the  good  things  of  life  cost  less  labor  than  before, 
and  Labor  is  the  gainer,  has  more  time  to  put  in  on 
debt,  taxes,  education,  public  welfare,  the  study  of 
Political  Economy,  politics,  recreation,  etc.  This  is 
brought  about  by  improved  processes,  machinery,  and 
methods  in  every  direction. 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  69 

CASE  VIIL 

Where  you  make  money  weaker  (easier  to  earn), 
other  commodities  remaining  as  before.  The  same 
work  brings  more  money  and  buys  the  same  amount 
of  commodities. 

Let  money  be  weakened  one-half  (cost  on  the  average 
half  as  much  labor  per  dollar).  Same  work  gets  twice 
as  much  money  as  it  did  before  (wages  doubled),  prices 
of  other  commodities  doubled  (price  of  money  never 
changes,  it  matters  not  how  hard  or  easy  it  be  to  obtain). 

Then  commodities  per  pound  cost  twice  what  they 
did  before  in  money,  but  exactly  what  they  did  before  in 
labor.  The  benefit  comes  in  paying  bonds  and  debts 
of  all  kinds,  or  wherever  there  is  a  contract  for  the 
delivery  of  the  standard.  This  would  help  labor  now, 
for  there  is  a  terrific  strain  or  demand  upon  labor  for 
gold,  or  upon  gold  for  labor,  and  labor  could  then  get 
this  tribute  easier,  for  the  purpose  of  handing  it  over 
to  a  legally  protected  pirate,  who  holds  him  as  a  pawn 
(peon). 

This  conqueror  and  task-master,  and  the  latter-day 
publicans  who  minister  to  him,  together  with  a  swarm 
of  obsequious  parasites,  have  the  hardihood  to  aver  that 
gold  money  is  the  only  "sound"  money,  and  gold  mono- 
metallism the  only  "safe"  system  for  the  commerce  of 
the  world;  and  this  pageant  is  followed  by  the  deluded 
hordes  of  Ignorance  marching  in  train. 

Suppose  that  the  standard  as  above  should  keep  weak- 
ening in  value  (command  over  labor):  we  would  soon 
have  not  only  "dollar  wheat"  but  $10  wheat,  but  we 
would  also  have  $10  labor. 


70  VAUCS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

The  man  who  got  a  dollar  a  day  might  have  bought 
a  bushel  of  wheat  with  it,  but  now  he  gets  $10  a  day, 
and  can  buy  only  a  bushel  of  wheat  with  it,  and  other 
things  in  proportion,  but  he  finds  that  money  is  '"easy." 
Corporation  bonds,  old  government  bonds,  etc.,  rest 
easier  upon  him,  and  he  is  happier,  and  has  some  time 
in  which  to  study  the  different  methods  of  taxation,  gov- 
ernmental, and  specially  privileged,  vested  wrongs,  spe- 
cial privileges  and  public  robberies,  whereby  Industry 
opened  Pandora's  box  and  let  all  the  blessings  out  but 
hope — hope  of  the  prosperity  that  will  sweep  over  the 
world  under  the  blessings  of  "sound  money,"  made  nine- 
tenths  of  gold  and  one-tenth  of  copper,  and  sold  by  the 
dollar  for  25.8  grains  thereof,  and  to  listen  to  the  song 
of  the  siren  of  the  gold  standardists,  who  would  have 
Labor  believe  that  the  science  of  government  is  the 
practise  of  public  spoliation. 

The  weakening  of  the  standard  (it  being  gold)  brings 
on  eras  of  prosperity,  as  it  means  the  cheapening  of  the 
commodity,  gold,  the  lightening  of  debt.  It  is  approx- 
imately the  state  "flush  times  in  California,"  "a  rich 
mining  camp"  or  discovery  of  rich  gold  mines,  with 
heavy  influx  of  gold  into  the  commerce  of  the  world. 

This  is  a  case  of  "rising  prices,"  as  was  the  case  of 
Diagram  2,  but  it  represents  a  very  different  and  more 
favorable  state  of  affairs,  which  is  not  apparent  by  any 
difference  in  prices  as  compared  with  it.  In  more  or 
less  degree  these  rising  prices  of  prosperity  have  fol- 
lowed the  discovery  of  large  quantities  of  gold  and 
silver.  For  instance,  the  discovery  of  America,  Aus- 
tralia, and  California,  and  more  recently  South  Africa, 
Alaska,  etc.,  have  relieved  to  some  extent  the  strain,  but 
as  matters  are  now  under  the  gold  standard  all  times 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  71 

must  be  "hard,"  but  some  "times"  may  be  harder  than 
others. 

CASE  X. 

\Yhere  the  value  (cost  in  labor)  of  all  commodities, 
standard  included,  is  weakened.  By  uniformly  weak- 
ening them  by  one-half,  we  will  have  the  state  of  price 
or  relative  value  depicted  in  Diagram  10;  nevertheless, 
the  diagram  is  the  same  as  Diagram  o  or  Diagram  5, 
but  the  state  of  public  prosperity  in  each  of  these  cases 
is  very  different. 

In  Diagram  5  the  "tension"  is  twice  what  it  was  in 
Diagram  zero,  and  in  Diagram  10  it  is  half  what  it  was 
in  Diagram  o.  So  that  Diagram  10  has  a  "tension"  \ 
as  great  as  Diagram  5.  Nevertheless  the  diagrams  are 
the  same,  whereas  Diagram  5  represents  "times"  twice 
as  hard  as  Diagram  o,  and  lour  times  as  hard  as  Dia- 
gram 10,  which  represents  the  easiest  "times,"  the  high- 
est state  of  prosperity  among  the  three.  The  purchas- 
ing power  of  industrious  man  is  four  times  as  great  in 
case  10  as  it  was  in  case  5,  and  his  happiness  wonder- 
fully increased.  It  is  the  purchasing  power  of  Industry 
to  which  the  gold  standard  is  inimical. 

While  the  gold  standard  combined  with  the  great 
interest-bearing  gold  debts  of  the  world,  in  \\hich  La;v 
farms  Labor  out  to  the  power-sucking  ghost,  together 
with  other  monopoly  work  in  one  direction,  some  cir- 
cumstances other  than  the  exploitation  of  new  territory 
have  been  working  in  favor  of  mankind,  and  they  are 
improved  methods,  processes  and  machinery  of  all  kinds 
for  transportation  as  well  as  manufacture,  together  with 
the  attention  that  is  publicly  given  to  education, 
whereby  the  average  intelligence  is  increased,  which 


72  ITALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

brings  about  the  spread  of  liberality  or  humanity,  or, 
rather,  the  suppression  of  ignorance,  bigotry,  and  arro- 
gance, and  an  inquiring  and  scientific  spirit,  a  desire 
that  truth  may  prevail,  an  increased  interest  is  taken  in 
the  public  welfare,  as  evidenced  in  the  increased  study 
of  Political  Economy  or  of  public  questions,  which  are 
all  influences  against  the  demoralization  and  ruin  that 
must  under  present  conditions  inevitably  attend  a  final 
continuance  in  the  error  of  what  is  known  as  gold 
monometallism.  But  long  before  this  error  shall  have 
accomplished  the  ruin  of  mankind,  its  temple  of  sophis- 
try will  fall  to  the  ground,  be  blown  to  nothingness,  the 
fallacies  of  its  defenders  exposed,  and  the  iniquity  as 
well  as  idiocy  of  its  political  championship  revealed. 

An  inspection  of  the  reasoning  and  the  diagrams 
shows  that,  contrary  to  a  very  widespread  impression, 
prices  furnish  no  absolutely  true  indication  of  the  gen- 
eral prosperity  or  of  the  ''times,"  for  with  the  same 
prices  we  may  have  "hard"  or  "easy"  times,  '''bad"  or 
"good"  times.  Prices  do  not  showr  the  relative  general 
ease  or  difficulty  of  living. 

Prices  or  relative  values  in  this,  again  have  their  anal- 
ogy or  points  of  similarity  or  symmetry  writh  specific 
gravity,  for  if  you  should  double  the  gravity  of  every 
substance  in  the  world,  that  is,  make  each  one  uniformly 
twice  as  heavy  as  it  was  before,  the  result  would  not  be 
shown  by  any  steelyards  or  in  any  scale  pans  in  the 
world. 

People  might  be  very  much  oppressed  by  their  extra 
gravity  (might  feel  "heavy")  but  it  would  not  show  by 
steelyards  or  any  beam  balances  (though  it  might  with 
spring  balances,  for  they  are  affected  in  a  different  way, 
as  is  the  vital  power  which  opposes  gravity). 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  73 

The  very  standard  itself  would  be  doubled,  and  an 
object  which  weighed  10  pounds  before  the  general 
doubling,  would  still  continue  to  weigh  10  pounds,  just 
as  in  a  general  uniform  increase  of  value,  as  in  Diagram 
5,  any  object  worth  $10  before  would  be  worth  $10 
after.  If  the  specific  gravity  of  anything  should  be  2 
before,  it  would  be  2  after;  for,  the  standard  and  every- 
thing else  having  doubled,  there  is  no  change  in  the 
relationship. 

In  Diagram  "O"  if  we  should  consider  A  to  represent 
the  specific  gravity  of  a  standard,  then  B,  C,  D,  E,  F, 
and  G  would  represent  the  specific  gravities  of  the  other 
substances,  being  respectively  specific  gravities  of  1-8, 
I-TO,  1-4,  15-100.  1-5,  and  2-5,  and  in  the  case  of  spe- 
cific gravity  we  can  hardly  imagine  that  this  relation 
would  change;  so  the  table  would  stand  forever  as  in- 
dicating the  specific  gravity  or  relative  weight  of  these 
substances. 

If  we  should  imagine  any  change,  we  would  imagine 
it  to  be  uniform,  or  that  everything  would  be  in  equal 
ratio,  so  that  the  table  would  still  stand  as  a  diagram  of 
the  specific  or  relative  gravity  of  these  substances.  For 
example,  it  would  not  be  easy  or  natural  for  us  to  imag- 
ine that  the  specific  gravity  of  lead  would  be  doubled, 
while  that  of  copper  were  reduced  or  increased  in  a  dif- 
ferent ratio.  But  an  analogous  thing  is  exactly  what 
occurs  in  prices,  and  we  may  have  silver  "rising"  and 
\vheat  "falling"  or  w-heat  "rising1'  and  silver  "falling." 

We  have  in  prices  a  "variable"  standard,  a  standard 
that  varies  or  is  stronger  or  weaker  at  different  times, 
for  the  very  quantity  of  value  (although  mathematically 
always  one  or  unity)  contained  in  our  standard  is  un- 
certain and  indefinite  and  subject  to  the  same  fluctua- 


74  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

tions  and  uncertainties  as  is  the  value  in  the  commod- 
ities which  are  compared  to  its  value;  for  money  and  all 
other  commodities  in  trade  are  subject  to  the  same 
influences  and  similarly  affected  by  like  conditions. 

In  the  case  of  chemical  solutions,  strengths  are  abso- 
lute; we  may  weigh  the  soluble  in  the  standard  and  in 
all  the  others.  Suppose,  for  instance,  that  the  soluble 
were  common  salt  dissolved  in  water;  we  can  evaporate 
and  condense  the  water  and  weigh  or  measure  the  salt, 
and  we  would  have  for  each  solution  the  proper  and 
unvarying  quantity  of  salt.  It  is  something  tangible, 
visible,  and  ponderable. 

Although  in  the  case  of  gravity  we  may  sense  the 
gravity,  or  perceive  it  by  the  sense  of  weight,  we  can 
neither  see  it  nor  touch  it,  so  that  in  both  gravity  and 
value  our  standard  is  intangible  and  invisible,  and  in  the 
case  of  value  in  the  United  States  it  is  always  the  value 
of  25.8  grains  of  minted  gold.  In  the  case  of  weight  in 
the  United  States  and  England,  it  is  the  weight  of  a 
piece  of  brass  deposited  in  the  Tower  of  London,  to 
which  all  other  pound  weights  are  referred.  For  the 
metric  system,  it  is  the  weight  of  a  certain  cube  a,  cc, 
or  cubic  centimeter  (cc— cubic  centimeter)  of  water,  and 
is  called  a  gramme.  A  thousand  cubic  centimeters  of 
water  is  a  litre  of  water,  and  weighs  a  kilogram,  called 
a  kilo.  So  that  the  weight  of  a  litre  of  any  substance 
quickly  shows  its  specific  gravity  as  compared  with 
water.  Its  weight  in  kilograms  is  its  specific  gravity, 
which  is  a  scientific  convenience,  a  common-sense 
arrangement.  So  it  is  that  in  this  regard  Frenchmen 
are  generally  better  educated  than  Englishmen  or  Amer- 
icans, and  have  a  better  idea  of  weight  and  the  specific 
gravity  of  substances. 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  75 

If  we  weighed  our  money  by  the  pound  avoirdupois, 
and  decimal  or  convenient  subdivisions  thereof,  we 
would  have  a  better  idea  of  relative  value  or  of  how 
much  the  commodity  money  is  costing  in  labor,  as  com- 
pared to  the  other  substances,  and  how  much  labor  it  is 
costing  to  keep  this  elegant,  exquisite,  economical,  in- 
tricate, impartial,  international,  imperial,  interesting, 
immaculate,  invisible,  ideal,  inspired,  impudent,  infernal 
gold  money  interest  machinery  going. 

\Vhen  the  specific  gravity  of  any  substance  is  once 
established,  it  is  established  forever  and  becomes  a  part 
of  scientific  data  or  knowledge,  recorded  in  tables  of 
specific  gravity.  But  value  differs  from  gravity  in  the 
fact  that  it  is  subject  to  continual  fluctuation  in  every 
direction,  and  the  only  one  thing  certain  is  that  the 
nearer  zero  or  the  mark  of  no  cost  in  human  labor 
any  article  can  be  brought,  the  better,  as  this  is  prog- 
ress, civilization,  greater  return  or  satisfaction  for  labor, 
or  increase  in  human  happiness,  greater  economy  of 
the  human  strength.  So  Political  Economy  is  inter- 
ested in  reducing  value  or  increasing  the  return  for 
labor.  Another  most  important  thing  to  consider  in 
this  discussion  is  time,  for  if  we  take  the  case  of  chemi- 
cal solution  as  illustrated  in  Diagram  o,  we  rind  that  it 
is  or  may  easily  be  made  inalterable  with  time.  We  can 
make  another  set  in  every  possible  respect  exactly  like 
it,  or  as  many  copies  as  we  like,  and  under  appropriate 
and  easily  arranged  conditions,  we  can  keep  them  or 
reproduce  them  practically  forever.  So  it  is  with 
weight  and  specific  gravity  (although  we  can  imagine 
such  a  change  as  possible  with  the  Creator  of  the  uni- 
verse), no  changes  have  occurred  and  none  are  likely  to 


76  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

occur,  for  we  are  to  suppose  the  universe  to  endure  as 
it  is  now,  and  a  table  of  specific  gravity  once  made,  is 
made  for  all  time.  , 

It  is  different,  however,  in  the  matter  of  relative  value 
or  prices.  The  scale  of  prices  of  Diagram  o  might 
never  exactly  occur  again,  and  even  if  it  did,  it  might, 
as  we  have  before  explained,  represent  a  truly  different 
state  of  affairs  for  mankind.  So  we  have  only  one  set 
of  prices  at  a  time,  but  for  different  times  we  have  one 
for  each,  but  they  may  never  be  exactly  the  same. 

We  can  not  in  the  same  market  have  different  con- 
temporaneous sets,  and  we  can  not,  as  in  the  chemical 
solutions,  confront  one  set  with  another,  or  with  any 
number  of  others,  for  all  we  can  have  in  a  market  report 
is  a  record  of  sales  or  past  prices,  which  are  the  only 
true  prices,  for  we  are  not  dealing  with  what  men  ask 
for  commodities,  but  with  what  commodities  actually 
exchange  for. 

It  is  this  peculiar  variability  of  value  that  has  hitherto 
baffled  every  attempt  at  the  exact  definition  of  money, 
or  a  correct  understanding  and  clear  explanation  of  the 
phenomena  of  price  or  relative  value. 

It  might  be  possible  in  a  manner  to  illustrate  what  we 
have  called  "tension"  (times)  graphically. 

In  which  case  all  the  lines  in  Diagram  5  would  be 
twice  as  high  as  in  Diagram  o  and  four  times  as  high  as 
in  Diagram  10.  Their  relative  height  has  not  changed, 
and  the  distinction  is  not  shown  by  prices.  This 
could  be  or  would  only  be  done  to  assist  the  mind 
in  its  imagination.  Diagram  10  shows  "times"  four 
times  as  good  as  Diagram  5.  The  whole  scale  is 
pitched  to  a  different  key.  The  standard  would  show 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  77 

the  key-note,  and  if  this  tension  should  represent  public 
distress  or  lack  of  happiness,  then  Diagram  o  is  an  oc- 
tave higher  than  10,  and  10  might  be  a  contented  hum 
and  5  a  painful  cry,  but  we  have  no  general  key-note, 
and  know  no  unit  measure  for  either  distress  or  pleas- 
ure, and  prices,  as  we  have  shown,  do  not  certainly  show 
relative  general  prosperity  or  public  welfare,  though  it 
is  clear  that  "low"  values  or  "low"  tensions  of  value 
indicate  "easy"  or  "good"  times.  This  "tension"  may 
be  called  strain  on  Industry  or  Labor.  As  a  matter  of 
truth,  all  times  have  been  "hard,"  and  it  is  the  province 
01  Political  Economy  to  show  how  they  may  be  made 
easy,  so  that  the  times  of  "refreshing"  or  general  pros- 
perity may  come,  and  every  man  may  be  rewarded 
according  as  his  work  shall  be.  In  the  case  of  solutions 
of  salt,  etc.,  we  can  weigh  our  key-note.  It  is  some- 
thing tangible  and  visible.  In  the  case  of  gravity  it  is 
invisible,  intangible,  but  is  physically  sensible,  for  it  is 
weight,  a  power  which  acts  on  our  bodies  and  is  counter- 
acted by  the  vital  force,  and  it  is  consistently  invariable; 
that  is,  at  the  same  place  any  substance  always  weighs 
the  same. 

But  value,  whatever  impression  it  may  make  on  the 
mind,  makes  none  on  the  body,  and  can  not  be  gauged 
by  any  apparatus  but  the  markets,  and  it  is  variable,  as 
we  have  shown,  but  it  is  accountably  variable,  or  it  varies 
according  to  true  law  and  not  in  an  unaccountable  man- 
ner. Value  fluctuates  in  every  object  in  trade.  Prices 
may  fluctuate,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  do  fluctuate  in 
every  object  of  trade  except  one;  that  one  is  money,  or 
the  standard,  and  although  value  may  fluctuate  in  the 
money,  the  price  of  money  can  not  and  does  not  n*uc- 


78  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

tuate  or  change.  Money  can  not  fluctuate  in  price, 
but  it  may  change  in  value,  that  is,  become  harder  or 
easier  to  obtain,  as  do  other  commodities,  and  price 
shows  only  this  relative  difficulty  of  acquisition,  money 
being  taken  as  the  standard  or  as  the  unity,  and  all 
commodities  compared  to  it;  for  all  commodities  when 
compared  to  a  single  one  are  thereby  compared  to  each 
other,  whereby  money  is  sometimes  called  the  ''com- 
mon denominator  of  exchange."  We  have  different 
moneys  in  the  world,  and  the  money  of  Mexico  (silver) 
fluctuates  as  compared  to  the  money  of  the  United 
States,  and  vice  versa.  So  that  the  man  in  the  United 
States  pays  different  prices  at  different  times  for  Mex- 
ican dollars,  and  therefore  the  man  in  Mexico  pays 
different  prices  at  different  times  for  United  States  gold. 
The  gold  moneys  of  France  and  Germany  in  the  United 
States  are  dealt  with  as  bullion,  although  of  exactly  the 
same  composition  as  American  gold,  and  weight  for 
weight  they  should  exchange  for  exactly  the  same,  but 
they  are  not  coined  according  to  our  American  or  dollar 
system.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  practically  do  ex- 
change for  the  same,  for  any  variance  is  restrained  by 
the  fact  that  they  can  be  melted  and  minted  into  United 
States  dollars  without  any  charge  for  coinage. 

If  you  should  buy  an  article  D  as  in  Diagram  o  and 
sell  it  as  in  Diagram  i,  you  will  have  doubled  your 
money;  for  it  has  twice  the  relative  value  in  the  second 
place  that  it  has  in  the  first  and  will  buy  twice  the  money 
it  did  before.  If  you  should  buy  D  as  in  case  3  and  sell 
it  as  in  case  i,  you  will  quadruple  your  money,  for  then 
it  would  buy  four  times  as  much  money  as  before.  This 
illustrates  profits  in  speculation  or  in  business — it  shows 


THE    THEORY    OF    VALUE.  7J) 

how  fortunes  are  sometimes  easily  and  quickly  made 
with  small  capital;  for  should  the  commodity  von  buy 
rise  steadily  without  falling,  you  may  buy  and  sell,  and 
with  the  proceeds  repeat  again  and  again,  with  mucfi 
cumulative  profit,  especially  on  a  "margin." 

Value  is  variable,  but  may  change  uniformly  in  several 
commodities,  money  included,  without  changing  prices, 
as  we  have  shown  in  Diagrams  o,  5  and  10,  but  any 
change  in  the  relativity  of  values  is  shown  by  prices. 
Prices  are  simply  the  report  of  the  relationship  of  value. 
To  aid  your  mind  it  is  well  to  remember  that  set  price, 
rigidly  speaking,  can  not  fluctuate;  for  instance,  the 
price  live  cents  a  pound  can  not  fluctuate.  It  is  always 
five  cents  a  pound,  and  can  not  change,  but  the  relation- 
ship of  the  value  of  a  commodity  may  change,  in  which 
case  it  is  represented  by  a  new  price,  and  five  cents  a 
pound,  or  the  old  price,  does  not  show  the  new  relation- 
ship; or  relative  value  fluctuates  from  one  price  to  an- 
other or  from  one  relative  value  to  another. 

XOTK. — It  would  be  convenient  if  we  could  intro- 
duce into  this  discussion  the  word  "rulnice"  to  mean 
the  same  thing  as  relative  value;  then  a  table  of  relative 
values  would  be  a  table  of  valences,  and  the  standard 
valence  would  be  one,  or  unity,  as  in  the  table  which 
we  constructed  the  valence  of  money  is  always  one,  or 
unity;  that  is  what  makes  it  to  be  money. 

Also  if  we  could  employ  the  word  "valic"  to  mean  the 
same  as  the  term  of  value,  or  the  expression  pertaining 
to  value,  the  standard  value  would  be  the  valic  stand- 
ard, as,  for  example,  the  value  of  a  United  States  dollar. 

This  might  and  should  have  its  correspondence  in  the 
matter  of  weight.  Specific  gravity  would  be  gravence. 
Gravic  would  mean  of,  or  pertaining  to,  weight. 

\\hen  you  look  at  a  gold  dollar,  remember  that  its 
value  is  the  standard  value  for  measuring  or  computing 


80  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

value;  its  value  is  the  measure  of  value.  Remember  that 
its  value  is  always  one,  so  the  expression  for  the  value  of 
an  equal  weight  of  any  other  commodity  would  give 
its  relative  value.  This  would  be  true  in  the  same  pro- 
portion if  we  took  any  multiple  of  this  weight,  which  we 
did  when  we  took  the  pound  avoirdupois  for  compari- 
son. Therefore  the  relative  value  of  the  material  money 
is  always  one,  and  its  price  never  changes,  and  the  rela- 
tive value  of  any  other  commodity  is  but  the  true  mathe- 
matical expression  for  its  price,  and  fluctuations  in  price 
are  simply  changes  in  relative  value.  The  value  of  sev- 
eral articles  may,  as  we  have  shown,  increase  or  decrease 
uniformly  without  any  change  in  relative  value  or  price 
among  them. 

Another  convenient  term  in  the  science  of  valics 
would  be  a  word  indicating  a  commodity  sold  by  weight. 
If  such  a  commodity  were  called,  for  instance,  a  poise, 
then  money  would  be  a  poise,  and  the  general  rules  gov- 
erning the  value  of  money  are  the  same  as  those  govern- 
ing the  value  of  all  other  commodities  or  poises.  Money 
would  be  the  poise  of  standard  value. 


CHAPTER  V. 
What  Is  Value? 

To  say  that  value  is  ''purchasing  power"  shows  our 
conception  of  the  meaning  of  the  word,  but  does  not 
throw  light  upon  the  origin  or  nature  of  this  powerful 
elusiveness,  lighter  than  ether,  that  so  sways  and  bur- 
dens the  world. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  relative  value  indicates  relative 
command  of  the  services  of  men.  To  the  person  who 
does  not  own  a  certain  commodity,  but  who  owes  it  or 
who  must  acquire  it,  it  represents  relative  difficulty  of 
acquisition,  the  relative  expenditure  of  labor  or  time  at 
labor,  wages,  necessary  to  obtain  it,  not  cost  of  pro<l ac- 
tion; for  cost  of  production  is  past,  we  supposing  that 
by  cost  of  production  is  meant  the  expenditure  neces- 
sary to  put  a  thing  on  the  market;  for  price  or  value 
depends  not  upon  what  Labor  has  done  in  the  past  upon 
an  article,  but  upon  what  Labor  will  do  for  it  right  now 
in  the  immediate  future. 

An  article  at  TO  cents  per  pound  has  twice  the  com- 
mand per  pound  over  your  services  that  an  article  at 
5  cents  per  pound  has,  and  this  is  so  whether  you  have 
a  salary  of  $1,000  per  month  or  any  other. 

As  this  is  true  of  one,  so  it  is  true  of  every  man  in  the 
world,  or  of  all  workinginen  collectively,  or  of  what  is 
6  (81) 


82  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

specifically  called  '"Labor."  So  relative  value  indicates 
relative  command  over  Labor.  Now  whether  Value 
indicates  command  of  labor  or  whether  it  indicates  diffi- 
culty of  acquisition  depends  upon  whether  a  man  works 
to  obtain  it  or  whether  it  causes  or  makes  somebody 
to  work  for  him.  In  either  case  it  represents  command 
over  the  seruices  of  men,  or,  as  we  have  said,  command 
of  Labor, 

As  it  is  clear  that  relative  value  (which  is  only  found, 
properly  speaking,  among  commodities  sold  by  weight) 
shows  relative  command  over  the  services  of  men,  so  it 
is,  therefore,  plain  that  value  indicates  command  over 
the  services  of  men,  or  over  their  disposition  to  work; 
for  if  a  man  will  not  work,  value  does  not  tempt  him. 
Therefore  value  indicates  command  over  industrious 
mankind,  or  over  Labor,  and  relative  value  indicates 
the  relative  strength  of  this  command  as  among  differ- 
ent commodities. 

For  all  practical  purposes  of  the  reasoning  of  man, 
for  all  purposes  of  comparison  or  computation,  value 
must  be  regarded  as  "intrinsic,"  inherent,  or  resident 
within  a  commodity,  that  is,  just  as  weight  resides 
within  a  substance.  But  weight  does  not  fluctuate  as 
does  value,  for  at  times  there  is  apparently  more  value 
within  the  same  substance  than  at  others. 

But,  as  a  matter  of  the  deep  science  of  both  gravity 
and  value,  "the  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  may  take 
away." 

The  lord  of  value,  or  the  cause  of  value,  is  man;  but 
for  man,  there  would  be  no  value  in  anything.  It  exists 
with  him,  originated  with  him,  and  would  die  with  him. 
It  is  peculiarly  a  human  attribute,  or,  rather,  an  arti- 


U'HAT   IS    VALUE?  83 

s 

ficial  attribute  of  certain  substances  due  entirely  to 
human  agency.  It  can  not  be  indicated  by  any  balance 
or  gauge  but  that  which  comes  through  the  markets, 
or  because  of  the  natural  tendency  of  man  to  trade  or 
exchange  what  he  has  for  something  he  prefers,  so  that 
both  parties  to  a  trade  are  usually  gainers  in  felicity. 

Nearly  all  of  us  like  domination;  we  all  desire  value, 
which  is  command  over  human  services,  the  same  thing 
as  having  a  storage  battery  that  will  set  a  hired  man 
in  motion,  for  there  is  always  some  place  where  this 
essence  or  influence  (value)  is  wanted,  and  where  labor 
is  done  for  it,  and  in  turn  it  may  be  done  again,  but  any 
material  may  carry  less  of  this  power  at  some  times 
than  at  others. 

Gold  has  so  much  of  this  power  that  the  owners  of 
the  gold  indebtedness  of  the  world  hold  the  world  in 
bondage,  and  their  title,  under  the  present  system  of 
gold  monometallism  and  attendant  perversions  01  right, 
reason,  truth,  and  justice,  must  last  forever.  "Man 
gave,  and  man  may  take  away;"  and  in  the  case  of 
weight,  "the  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  may  take  away;" 
for  we  do  not  know  that  the  attraction  of  gravitation 
shall  be  eternal. 

Value  is  taken  away  from  any  commodity  in  two  dif- 
ferent ways:  (i)  By  increasing  the  stock  or  quantity 
olYered  in  the  market;  (2)  by  decreasing  the  labor  offered 
for  it,  which  is  noted  in  the  market  by  lighter  and  less 
enthusiastic  offers  of  value  (command  over  services, 
jin.irtically  labor),  which  accompany  the  decline  in  its 
purchasing  power.  This  latter  way  is  the  way  in  which 
we  propose  to  decrease  the  value  of  gold,  that  is,  by  not 
using  it  to  hire  men  with,  by  not  accepting  it  as  wages, 


84  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

or  pay  of  labor.  The  latter  method,  it  will  be  noticed, 
is  the  more  certain,  absolute,  and  efficacious  way;  for 
the  first  method  is  dilution,  but  the  latter  method  is 
subtraction,  or  rather  extraction.  If  half  of  its  vafue 
should  slip  out  of  gold,  the  gold  debts  of  the  world 
would  be  half  paid,  as  far  as  the  burden  upon  Labor  is 
concerned,  though  not  a  stroke  of  work  should  be  done, 
though  they  would  not  be  in  any  part  at  all  paid,  as  far 
as  materially  and  morally  satisfying  the  obligation  is 
concerned;  this  can  only  be  discharged  by  the  delivery 
of  the  material,  and  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
its  value. 

In  the  case  of  gravity  it  is  very  likely,  for  some  reasons 
known,  that  there  is  no  weight  inherent  in  a  substance, 
but  that  for  certain  extraneous  causes  it  is  possessed 
of  gravity.  These  depend  upon  the  method  of  the  cre- 
ation of  the  universe,  and  involve  a  discussion  of  the 
science  of  chemical  union  (were  there  no  such  thing  as 
chemical  union,  the  world,  such  as  it  is,  could  never 
have  been  formed),  heat,  motion,  the  problem  of  plus 
and  minus  weight,  or  centrifugal  and  centripetal  motion, 
and  a  system  of  reasoning,  where  the  mind  of  man,  not 
vet  being  fully  reinforced  by  scientific  fact  or  theory, 
must  float  in  rather  thin  air— a  discussion  here  of  which 
would  be  out  of  place. 

In  fact,  a  man  must  not  be  too  sure  that  his  soul  is 
his  own,  or  resides  integrally  or  disconnectedly  within 
him. 

However,  for  all  practical  purposes  of  human  com- 
putation, weight  may  be  considered  as  residing  within 
any  substance,  as,  for  instance,  lead,  and  its  strength  in 


WHAT   IS    VALUE?  85 

lead  as  compared  among  other  substances  is  shown  by 
the  specific  gravity  of  lead. 

For  all  practical  purposes  of  commerce  and  compu- 
tation, it  is  quite  as  much  so  with  value,  and  value  may 
be  said  to  reside  within  a  community,  as,  for  instance, 
copper,  and  its  relative  strength  in  copper  as  compared 
among  other  substances  is  shown  by  the  relative  value 
of  copper,  which  is  but  another  expression  for  its  price. 

In  the  consideration  of  weight,  or  gravity,  we  may 
regard  weight  as  dissolved  in  volume.  In  the  consider- 
ation of  value,  we  may  regard  value  as  dissolved  in 
weight,  or  as  homogeneously  permeating  weight. 

The  man  who  speaks  of,  or  at  least  who  thinks  of  or 
in,  paper  money,  can  not  be  logical,  at  least  to  my  mind. 
I  do  not  pretend  to  curtail  the  use  of  "paper  money," 
or  paper  in  any  form,  that  is,  when  it  is  found  to  be  a 
convenience,  but  the  value  of  any  paper  depends  on  the 
value  of  some  material,  and  it  is  "bad"  when  the  mate- 
rial which  it  pretends  to  stand  as  a  title  for,  can  not  be 
gotten  for  it. 

In  the  consideration  of  gravity  the  mind  can  go  no 
further  than  to  say  that  gravity  depends  upon  or  is 
caused  by  conditions  brought  about  by  the  mind  of  the 
Creator  of  the  universe.  This  is  the  last  refuge  of 
human  reason,  in  a  sense  an  acknowledgment  of  defeat 
or  inadequacy,  or  that  the  mind  of  man  is  not  able  to 
bring  the  facts  into  harmonious  subjection  under  any 
theory,  though  the  time  will  come  when  "there  is  noth- 
ing covered  that  shall  not  be  revealed."  As  in  the  mind 
of  God  "there  is  no  variableness  nor  shadow  of  change," 
specific  gravity  docs  not  vary,  and  weight  is  not  change- 


86  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

able  (that  is,  considered  with  reference  to  time).  There 
can  not  be  the  least  doubt  but  that  value  is  a  resultant 
brought  about  by  conditions  that  are  caused  by  the 
desires  of  men,  and  as  with  man  is  much  variableness 
and  change,  so  indeed  is  value  variable  and  price 
changeable. 


CHAPTER    VI. 
Definition  of  Money. 

A  very  widely  accepted  definition  of  money,  which 
is  by  many  called  "exact,"  is  the  following:  ''Money  is 
that  which  passes  from  hand  throughout  the  commu- 
nity in  final  discharge  of  debt,  and  final  payment  for 
commodities,  being  accepted  equally  without  reference 
to  the  character  or  the  credit  of  the  person  who  offers 
it,  and  without  the  intention  of  the  person  who  receives 
it  to  consume  it,  or  enjoy  it,  or  apply  it  to  any  other 
use  than  in  turn  to  tender  it  to  others  in  discharge  of 
debts  or  full  payment  for  commodities."  (Walker,  in 
'''Money  Trade  and  industry.") 

The  above  is  a  fearful  example  of  what  is,  and  has 
been  accepted  as  a  definition  in  the  inchoate  state  of  a 
science  such  as  is  now  taught  in  our  colleges  and  called 
the  science  of  Political  Economy.  Political  Economy 
is  hardly  up  to  chemistry  as  it  was  under  the  phlogiston 
or  spirit  or  fire  theory. 

Such  a  definition  does  not  afford  the  mind  firm  sup- 
port for  grasping  any  fundamental  truth.  Any  truth 
of  science  is  short  and  easily  told,  always  harmonizes 
with  every  other  truth,  for  if  it  did  not  it  could  not  be 
true,  is  never  isolated,  but  always  connected  as  a  leaf, 
or  a  bud,  or  a  twig,  or  a  branch,  but  must  always  be 

(87) 


88  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

absolutely  true,  not  moderately  true  but  exactly  true, 
and  if  not  exactly  true,  must  be  either  not  true  itself 
or  that  by  which  it  is  compared  is  not  true.  There  may 
possibly  be  such  a  thing  as  a  moderately  honorable  man, 
a  moderately  virtuous  woman,  but  there  is  no  such 
thing  in  science  as  a  moderately  true  truth. 

However,  there  are  several  common  definitions  of 
money  that  almost  reach  exactness,  compiled  by  men 
who  had  some  light,  that  is,  saw  as  through  a  glass 
darkly,  but  not  quite  enough  to  definitely  outline  each 
idea. 

Among  these  are  the  following,  taken  in  order:— 

1.  Money  is  the  medium  of  exchange. 

2.  Money  is  the  measure  of  value. 

3.  Money  is  the  standard  of  value. 

1.  As  to  this  first  definition  we  have  clearly  shown 
that  value  is  the  medium  of  exchange  in  all  commercial 
transactions,  and  the  use  of  money  furnishes  the  means 
of    expressing   and    accounting    or    computing    value. 
Quantities  of  value  are  expressed  by  means  of  money, 
or,  in  other  words,  it  is  the  value  of  quantities  of  money 
that  is  used  to  express  quantity  of  value.     Commodities 
are  exchanged  by  means  of  their  value. 

2.  By  precise  reason  money  can  not  be  ,a  measure  of 
value,  it  being  a  metal  or  metallic  alloy,  but  the  value 
of  a  unit  weight  of  money,  or  what  we  have  called  a 
"money  unit,"  and  what  is  frequently  called  an  "account 
unit,"  is  the  measure  of  value.     In  the  United  States 
this  account  unit  is  25.8  grains  of  minted  United  States 
gold,  known  as  United  States  gold  coin,  which  is  the 
money  of  the  United  States. 

25.8  grains  is  a  mint  weight  or  standard  weight  used 
for  weighing  the  money  of  the  United  States. 


DEFINITION    OF    MONEY.  89 

Therefore  the  "measure  of  value"  is  the  "unit  of 
value,"  which  is  the  value  of  the  "money  unit." 

In  the  United  States  the  money  unit  is  the  gold  dol- 
lar, and  its  value  is  the  value  unit  (the  dollar's  worth), 
and  is  used  for  measuring  value  in  the  United  States, 
which  value  is  computed  in  accounts,  etc. 

3.  Xo  metal,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  alloy,  which 
is  money  can  be  a  standard  of  value.  The  standard  of 
value  nnist  Lc  and  is  of  rain*. 

Money  is  the  substance  whose  value  is  the  standard 
value.  As  the  value  of  each  substance  in  trade,  or  com- 
modity, is  referred  to  or  related  or  compared  to  the 
value  of  money,  therefore  the  relative  value  of  money 
becomes  one,  or  unit}',  it  being  the  standard,  and  the 
relative  value  of  the  others  is  expressed  by  the  numbers 
showing  the  strength  of  their  respective  value  as  com- 
pared to  the  value  of  money,  which  being  the  standard 
value,  its  strength,  therefore,  is  always  one,  or  unity. 

Heretofore  we  have  said  that  the  true  definition  of 
money  is  this,  viz.,  money  is  that  substance  whose  rel- 
ative value  is  the  standard  of  relative  value;  or,  what  is 
the  same  thing,  money  is  that  substance  whose  relative 
value  is  one.  In  computation  a  standard  is  always 
mathematically  a  unity,  or  it  always  counts  one. 

We  have  done  this  in  order  to  be  clear  and  not  to 
confuse  the  mind  of  a  beginner,  but  after  all  it  is  enough 
to  say  that  money  is  that  substance  whose  value  is 
the  standard  of  value,  for  being  a  standard  of  value 
means  that  it  is  relative  as  other  values  are  compared 
or  related  to  it. 

Again,  value  can  not  be  a  standard  for  any  other 
thing  besides  value;  if  a  standard  at  all,  it  must  naturally 
be  a  standard  of  value. 


90  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

So  that  in  reality  for  those  who  have  studied  into  the 
matter  it  is  enough  to  say  money  is  that  substance  whose 
value  is  the  standard,  which  is  more  laconic.  Imt  this 
can  even  be  improved  upon,  and  finally  we  have  this 
definition  of  money,  viz.,  Money  is  the  commodity  (or 
substance)  of  standard  value.  In  the  U.  S.  it  is  gold 
coin  which  is  always  worth  one  dollar  the  25.8  grains, 
or  $271.3178  76-258  per  pound.  And  to  this  value  per 
pound  are  all  the  other  values  per  pound  compared. 
The  value  of  a  pound  of  U.  S.  money  always  contains 
the  value  of  the  same  number  of  value  dollars  that  its 
weight  contains  of  weight  dollars.  This  is  not  true  of 
any  other  commodity,  and  this  is  because  money  is  the 
commodity  of  standard  value. 

In  tables  of  specific  gravity  water  is  that  substance 
whose  weight  is  the  standard  of  relative  weight,  but 
as  weight  or  gravity  can  not  be  the  standard  for  any- 
thing but  weight  or  gravity,  therefore  water  is  that 
substance  whose  gravity  is  the  standard,  or  it  is  the  sub- 
stance of  standard  gravity.  Other  substances,  for  ex- 
ample, are  twice  or  three  times  or  half  as  heavy  per 
volume  as  is  water.  Water,  therefore,  in  tables  of  spe- 
cific gravity  is  that  substance  which  is  heavy  in  the 
ratio  i,  and  a  table  of  specific  gravity  shows  the  weight 
of  each  substance  in  this  proportion,  or,  as  they  say,  as 
compared  with  an  equal  volume  of  water. 

The  same  analogy  subsists  in  value,  tables  of  relative 
value  being  like  with  tables  of  specific  gravity,  and  we 
have  shown  any  market  report  to  be  but  a  table  of  rela- 
tive value  in  another  form,  although  this  relationship 
has  not  been  pointed  out  to  mankind  even  by  the  mon- 
etary oracles  of  gold  bug  colleges. 


DEFINITION    OF    MONEY.  ill 

A  table  of  relative  value  shows  the  value  of  substances 
as  compared  per  equal  weight,  and  money  is  the  sub- 
stance which  is  valuable  in  the  ratio  i. 

The  value  of  other  commodities  sold  by  weight,  as 
compared  with  money,  is  their  relative  value.  The 
value  of  a  money  unit  like  the  25.8  grains  of  U.  S.  coin 
might  be  called  its  absolute  value,  but  this,  as  we  have 
hitherto  shown,  is  a  variable;  and,  though  mathematic- 
ally it  is  unchangeable,  it  is  so  because  we  have  volun- 
tarily or  arbitrarily  made  it  the  standard,  and  therefore 
unity  (for  every  standard  is  of  necessity  mathematically 
I,  and  therefore  the  value  of  25.8  grains  of  U.  S.  gold 
is  always  one  value  dollar).  Still,  nevertheless,  there 
can  be  more  or  less  value  in  the  dollar  at  different  times, 
but  that  does  not  affect  its  price;  its  relative  value  or 
price  is  made  to  be  invariably  i,  so,  it  matters  not  how 
much  its  value  may  increase  or  diminish,  its  price  or  rel- 
ative value  is  always  i.  \Ye  have  among  ourselves 
agreed  to  call  the  value  of  25.8  grains  of  U.  S.  gold  i, 
and  thereby  we  compare  other  values,  and  in  that  sense 
it  is  invariable  and  unchangeable,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
it  is  variable  in  the  fact  that  it  does  change,  that  is,  be- 
comes greater  or  less,  or  harder  or  easier  ol  acquisition, 
or  harder  or  easier  to  earn,  and  so  does  any  given 
weight  of  any  other  substance  in  trade. 

There  is  no  absolute  unit  of  value  that  we  know  of,  no 
measure  for  pleasure  or  pain,  but  w-e  do  know  this,  that 
there  should  be  no  pain,  and  zero  would  show  perfec- 
tion; so  it  is  in  value,  o  shows  perfection;  good  things 
should  cost  the  least  possible  in  labor,  and  the  science  of 
Political  Economy  believes  in  killing  value,  that  is,  by, 
on  the  grand  average,  making  things  cheap  as  measured 


92  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

in  liuman  effort.  So  it  would  make  wages  high,  that  is, 
buy  much  of  the  good  things  of  life;  therefore  it  is  ut- 
terly opposed  to  special  privileges  and  thoroughly  in 
accord  with  equal  rights  to  all. 

Now  we  are  come  to  a  pseudo  (false)  definition  of 
money,  and  the  most  pernicious  known,  and  upon 
which  gold  standard  writers,  these  berserker  scientists 
of  Political  Economy,  have  built  a  superstructure  of 
error  in  defense  of  that  Moloch  of  modern  civilization 
known  as  gold  monometallism. 

1.  A  standard  of  future  payments. 

2.  A  standard  of  deferred  payments. 

We  assume  that  deferred  payments  are  the  same  as 
future  payments.  The  payment  of  anything  (if  paid  at 
all)  is  deferred  until  it  is  paid,  and  when  it  is  paid  it  is 
paid,  and  is  an  accomplished  fact,  a  payment  made  and 
past. 

So  that  a  payment  must  be  past  and  can  not  be  future. 
It  is  a  compliance,  a  fulfilment.  There  may  be  an  obli- 
gation or  promise  to  make  a  payment  at  some  future 
time,  and  if  complied  with,  then  at  that  time  the  pay- 
ment becomes  past.  So  that  all  of  these  must  be  in 
this  sense  future,  and  they  are  all  obligations  to  pay  in 
the  future.  So  we  come  down  to  the  fact  that  there 
is  no  necessity  for  the  word  "future,"  and  we  cut  the 
definition  down  to,  Money  is  the  standard  of  payments. 

Let  us  nowr  look  into  the  word  "standard."  There 
can  be  no  "standard  of  payments"  further  than  the 
moral  obligation  to  pay  what  is  owed.  There  can  be  no 
standard  payment  further  than  the  exact  payment  of 
what  has  been  agreed  to  be  paid,  whether  that  be 
money,  wheat,  silver,  brick,  or  iron,  or  any  other  com- 


DEFINITION    OF    MONEY.  93 

modity.  No  one  commodity  can  be  any  holier  than 
another,  and  the  obligation  to  deliver  money  is  no  more 
nor  less  sacred  than  the  obligation  to  deliver  any  other 
commodity;  and  legal  construction  of  obligation 
founded  on  any  other  idea,  being  false  in  theory,  is  per- 
nicious in  practise,  and  therefore  against  public  policy 
and  against  public  morals;  for  Public  Economy  is  a 
science  so  exact  that  nothing  logically  wrong,  incon- 
gruous, or  inharmonious,  can  possibly  be  practically 
right,  and  nothing  practically  wrong  can  possibly  be 
logically  or  theoretically  right.  Therefore,  if  an  indi- 
vidual, a  man,  or  a  nation  owes  a  quantity  of  gold,  when 
he  pays  that  quantity  of  gold  he  has  honestly,  fully,  and 
morally  discharged  that  obligation,  whether  that  gold 
cost  little,  much,  or  practically  no  labor. 


CHAPTER  VIL 
Changes  in  Relative  Value  or  Fluctuations  in  Price. 

Relative  value  indicates  relative  command  over  the 
services  of  men.  Anything  that  will  increase  this  tends 
to  increase  the  price,  and  vice  versa.  Relative  value  is 
the  pointer  of  the  gauge  (the  markets).  All  markets 
are  labor  markets,  not  of  labor  that  has  been  done,  for 
that  is  past  and  turns  no  wheel  in  the  market,  but  of 
labor  that  will  be  done. 

A  dollar  is  worth  a  dollar,  not  because  of  the  bygone 
industry  by  which  the  metal  is  in  your  possession,  but 
for  the  labor  that  will  be  done  or  is  offered  to  be  done 
now  in  order  to  get  it  out  of  your  possession,  and  so  with 
any  other  commodity.  Things  are  made  valuable  very 
largely  by  keeping  people  from  having  them,  and  some- 
times by  exclusion  acts  like  the  law  of  gold  monometal- 
lism, which  excludes  anything  else  from  competition 
with  gold  as  money,  and  was  made  to  benefit  the  bond 
trust  and  to  the  injury  of  the  industry  of  the  world.  It 
is  right  that  a  man  should  exclusively  have  that  which 
he  has  honestly  earned,  but  not  that  which  some  one 
else  has  honestly  earned.  It  is  said  that  price  is  gov- 
erned by  cost  of  production,  but  it  is  rather  the  cost  of 
production  that  is  limited  by  price,  for  price  depends 
upon  what  labor  will  do  to  obtain  an  article  rather  than 
upon  what  labor  has  done  to  bring  it  into  market. 
(94) 


CHAXGES   IX   RELATIVE    VALUE.  95 

In  fact,  the  price  of  a  thing  shows  what  it  will  do  in 
the  matter  of  purchasing  labor,  as  compared  with  what 
other  things  will  do. 

If  it  cost  more  to  produce  an  article  than  its  price  in 
the  market  will  pay,  then  production  ceases.  It  is  here 
that  competition  stops. 

Improved  methods  and  cheaper  power  mean  more 
cheaply  produced  goods.  True  progress  means  in- 
crease in  the  ease  of  production,  or  decrease  in  the  rela- 
tive amount  of  labor  or  human  effort  needed,  or  it 
means  increase  in  the  return  for  that  labor. 

In  this  "cheap"  goods  does  not  mean  cheap  men,  but 
means  dear  men,  high  men,  men  of  high  attainment. 
This  sort  of  cheapness  does  not  injure  the  useful  world, 
but  the  trouble  is  that  the  distribution  of  blessings 
under  our  system  is  not  fair;  the  men  who  earn  the 
good  things  of  this  lite  do  not  get  their  share.  If 
things  were  properly  or  justly  contrived,  we  would  all 
be  rich  in  blessings  and  poor  as  far  as  colossal  unearned 
fortunes  were  concerned.  There  is  no  trouble  about  the 
amount  of  gold  in  the  world,  there  is  plenty  of  it,  but 
it  is  not  always  in  the  right  place. 

A  merchant  trades  for  gain,  and  it  does  not  matter 
to  him  how  much  work  or  trouble  it  costs  to  produce 
an  article,  for  he  buys  it  only  for  the  profit  there  may  be 
in  it,  and  is  only  an  agent  between  buyers  or  an  assistant 
in  the  work  of  distribution.  These  buyers  sometimes 
buy  with  commodities,  and  they  sometimes  buy  with 
money,  just  as  the  merchant  does  in  the  market  (per- 
haps his  own  store);  for  when  he  buys  goods,  he  sells 
money,  and  when  he  sells  goods  he  buys  money. 

A  "consumer"  must  always  be   a   "producer."      He 


96  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

must  "produce"  something  for  the  markets  or  he  could 
not  buy  what  he  consumes. 

If  he  does  not  sell  labor,  then  he  must  "produce" 
merchandise,  the  product  of  some  other  man's  labor,  or 
the  product  of  his  own  labor,  or  at  least  he  must  pro- 
duce or  have  something  that  somebody  works  for  or 
that  will  buy  what  somebody  works  for. 

Any  demand  for  any  article  in  any  part  of  the  world 
is  a  demand  for  it  all  over  the  world,  or,  in  other  words, 
reaches  or  may  reach  every  part  of  the  world,  and  is 
only  checked  by  cost  of  production  and  transportation, 
that  is  the  movement  is  only  stopped  by  friction,  not 
but  what  there  is  a  "pull"  upon  the  article,  but  it  is  not 
strong  enough  to  move  it,  and  as  soon  as  this  friction 
is  sufficiently  decreased  it  starts  to  move.  This  is  done 
by  cheaper  transportation  and  production,  or  some- 
times the  "pull"  is  increased,  that  is,  the  relative  value 
becomes  greater  or  price  higher;  for  instance,  the  "pull" 
on  silver  at  16  to  i  is  strong  enough  to  "move"  it  out 
of  nearly  every  mine  in  Colorado,  but  at  32  to  i  it  is 
not,  and  it  takes  a  most  extraordinary  mine  to  pay  at 
that  rate. 

Any  demand  for  any  article  in  any  part  of  the  world 
affects  the  whole  world,  and  this  is  especially  true  of  an 
article  like  gold. 

Nations  the  farthest  apart  are  frequently  benefited 
or  injured  by  each  other  through  this  fact. 

The  mountaineer  of  the  Appalachians  is  benefited  by 
the  demand  in  China  for  ginseng,  and  many  a  good 
dollar  for  many  years  past  that  in  reality  came  from 
China  has  gone  to  buy  dry  goods  and  provisions  in  the 
homes  of  men  in  the  southeastern  United  States  who 


CHANGES  IN   RELATIVE    VALUE.  97 

otherwise  would  not  have  been  blessed  with  this  revenue 
and  source  of  comfort. 

As  this  in  this  case  acted  beneficially  so  it  may  act 
injuriously  in  other  cases;  for  as  this  is  true  of  one  com- 
modity, so  it  is  true  of  all.  In  the  case  of  gold,  the 
demand  for  which  under  constantly  accelerating  increase 
of  indebtedness  is  constantly  increasing,  any  gold  debt 
made  by  any  one  nation  in  the  world  affects  the  demand 
all  over  the  world. 

It  does  not  matter  whether  these  debts  be  public  or 
private  or  corporate,  the  rule  is  the  same,  and  they  can 
all  be  added  together  as  forming  one  injurious  mass 
upon  the  back  of  the  industrious  world  (Labor). 

So  that  in  the  matter  of  indebtedness,  especially  with 
increased  facility  of  transportation,  workingmen  all  over 
the  world  must  "bear  one  another's  burdens,"  or,  in 
other  words,  they  altogether  bear  one  burden,  and  the 
burden  of  debt  is  value,  or  the  amount  of  labor  it  pur- 
chases, and  this  command  over  the  labor  of  the  world 
is  the  power  of  the  money  kings  of  the  world,  who  own 
mankind  as  slaves  and  collect  constant  tribute;  or,  in 
other  words,  the  world  is  mortgaged  to  them,  and  they 
collect  constant  and  eternal  rent,  from  which,  as  is 
absolutely  demonstrable,  under  present  conditions,  with 
gold  monometallism,  mankind  can  never  possibly  be 
released  or  humanity  freed;  and  upon  this  cross,  this 
Caiaphas  of  Gold  Monometallism  would  have  not  one 
workingman  only,  but  all  workingmen,  crucified.  So 
thoroughly  has  this  high  priest  trained  his  followers 
that  they  forget  that  they  are  in  effect  murderers,  and  if 
a  man  dare  to  raise  his  voice  against  this  tenet  of  the 
Church  of  Political  Economy  as  now  ministered  and 
7 


98  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

taught  in  our  highest  schools,  he  is  almost  called  trai- 
torous, as  speaking  against  good  government,  and  by 
many  really  well  meaning  but  ignorant  patriots  is  con- 
sidered as  dangerous,  rebellious,  and  heretical,  as  being 
of  those  who  destroy  rather  than  build  up.  Prices  and 
production  are  influenced  by  a  falling  away  of  demand, 
and  great  industries  have  been  abandoned  on  this  ac- 
count. The  cultivation  of  the  madder  plant  and  the 
production  of  madder,  a  red  dye  extracted  from  its  root, 
were  once  very  important  industries  in  Europe,  but  the 
invention  of  analine  dyes  furnished  cheaper  substitutes 
and  resulted  in  the  abandonment  of  these  industries; 
and  similar  examples  regarding  other  industries  could 
be  mentioned.  Anything  in  the  market  consists  of 
material  and  the  labor  it  takes  to  put  it  there,  and  it  is 
a  fact  that  no  material,  considered  strictly  of  itself,  ever 
costs  anything.  It  is  the  gracious  gift  of  nature,  or,  as 
some  say,  of  God. 

So  it  is  with  gems,  metals,  woods,  and  fabrics,  and  all 
articles — mineral,  vegetable,  or  animal.  So,  somehow 
or  other,  we  are  only  exchanging  the  labor  of  men. 
But  men  do  not  desire  a  thing  because  of  the  work  or 
trouble  it  causes  to  get  it,  but  because  of  something 
connected  with  the  material  only,  and  material  sells  not 
the  labor  that  has  been  done  but  the  labor  that  can  or 
will  be  done,  or  the  labor  that  men  will  do  or  are  willing 
to  continue  doing;  and  the  man  who  finally  uses  it  or 
finalizes  it,  as  in  clothing,  provisions,  etc.,  desires  it,  not 
for  the  labor  it  cost,  but  for  the  desires,  wants,  or  neces- 
sities it  satisfies.  So  this  subject  is  not  quite  yet  clari- 
fied, but  will  be  later. 

People  will  naturally  take  a  commodity  to  their  best 


CHANGES  IN   RELATIVE    VALUE.  99 

market  (so  far  as  they  know),  and  by  looking  into  the 
matter  we  discover  the  following  great  rule  of  value, 
viz. : — • 

If  transportation  cost  zero  and  were  instantaneous,  contem- 
poraneous, prices  would  be  the  same  the  world  over. 

\Ye  would  for  the  same  moment  have  exactly  the  same 
market  report  all  over  the  world  and  exactly  the  same 
relative  values  everywhere.  The  price  of  any  one  article 
of  merchandise  would  have  the  same  "level"  everywhere. 
So  that  a  Barrel  of  Flour,  Bale  of  Cotton,  Sealskin, 
Cask  of  Sugar,  Sack  of  Coffee,  Ton  of  Iron,  or  any 
quantity  of  any  merchandise  whatsoever,  would  have  at 
the  same  time  the  same  price  in  Dakota,  India,  England, 
China,  Russia,  or  Australia,  or  at  any  or  every  point  in 
the  world. 

It  is  said  that  prices  or  trade  seeks  its  "level,"  but 
value,  unlike  water,  seems  rather  to  run  up  than  down; 
that  is,  commodities  go  from  points  of  low  value  to 
points  of  high  value.  This  is  explained  by  taking  any 
given  article,  and  wherever  there  is  a  point  of  ''high 
value"  it  must  be  a  point  of  "low  commodity,"  or  low 
supply  and  commodities  naturally  run  in  here  and  bring 
the  value  down,  and  so  all  over  the  ocean,  until  all  is 
level;  and,  as  we  said  before,  did  transportation  cost 
zero,  and  were  it  instantaneous,  prices  would  be  the 
same  the  world  over.  It  is  a  fact  that  this  process  of 
trade  seeking  its  level  goes  on  now.  Every  improve- 
ment whereby  transportation  is  cheapened  or  facilitated 
brings  the  world  nearer  and  nearer  to  this  state  of 
affairs.  Every  improvement  in  ocean  vessels  means 
cheaper  carriage.  Every  improvement  in  locomotives 
or  arrangement  whereby  less  coal  is  burnt  or  less  human 


100  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

labor  involved,  brings  us  nearer  and  nearer  to  this  point 
until  we  shall  approach  infinitely  near  it  and  almost  prac- 
tically reach  it.  It  pays  to  transport  cheaper  and 
cheaper  commodities,  transportation  costing  less  and 
less  value  per  pound,  or  taking  less  and  less  human 
labor  to  carry  the  freight;  for  any  other  labor  or  power 
does  not  in  a  sense  cost  anything  more  than  the  human 
labor  required  to  keep  it  operating. 

This  rule  has  always  been  working,  but  more  in  latter 
years,  and  we  frequently  hear  the  expression,  "Trade 
seeks  its  level."  As  commodities  are  more  cheaply 
transported,  so  are  men,  and  they  "run  to  and  fro,  and 
knowledge  is  increased." 

We  of  the  United  States  are  nearer  to  Asia  than  we 
were  to  Europe  30  years  ago  and  Time  is  teeming,  and 
there  is  no  knowing  what  a  few  years  may  bring  forth. 
In  time  the  walls  surrounding  countries  will  be  broken 
down,  and  all  men  will  as  brethren  be,  and  the  world 
will  become  one  country,  and  humanity  one  people,  and 
peace  on  earth  and  good-will  toward  men  will  prevail 
in  a  world  filled  with  intelligent  activity,  overflowing 
with  bounty,  and  bright  in  hope  and  happiness.  But 
this  can  never  be  until  true  political  economy  is  more 
generally  understood,  old  baleful  idols,  like  the  gold 
standard,  destroyed,  and  government  founded  on  scien- 
tific principles  which  of  necessity  are  just  and  simple; 
for  the  yoke  of  Truth  is  easy  and  the  burden  of  Love 
is  light. 


CHAPTER   VIIL 
Graphic  Record  of  Price,  or  Relative  Value. 

Suppose  that  we  represent  the  relative  value  of  any 
commodity  by  a  point,  situated  at  the  height  above  a 
level  zero  line  that  would  indicate  its  relative  value,  and 
traveling  across  the  page  from  left  to  right  with  regular 
pace,  so  that  any  unit  of  time  would  be  represented  by 
a  regular  horizontal  distance. 

Equal  horizontal  distances  would  mean  equal  times, 
and  any  perpendicular  line  on  the  page,  whether  real 
or  imaginary,  would  represent  the  same  instant  of  time. 
In  the  diagram  we  have  made  every  perpendicular  line 
to  represent  a  certain  time  of  day,  say  at  12  M.,  or  noon, 
and  each  horizontal  space  represents  24  hours,  so  that 
the  diagram  represents  a  month  of  31  days. 

Our  moving  point  representing  the  relative  value  of 
any  commodity,  would  leave  an  exact  record  of  relative 
value  as  it  moved  across  the  page.  These  lines  of  rel- 
ative value  or  price  orbits  would  rise  and  fall  and  fluc- 
tuate in  height  exactly  as  prices  do.  The  line  for  money 
would  always  be  level,  and  a  straight  line  across  the 
page  for  its  relative  value  or  price,  being  the  standard, 
is  always  the  same  and  can  not  fluctuate,  and  it  would 
be  at  the  distance  unity  above  the  zero  level;  for,  as  we 
have  proved  before,  the  relative  value  of  money  is  always 
a  mathematical  unity. 

(101) 


102  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

We  might  elect  to  divide  this  unity  into  100  parts, 
as  we  did  before  in  this  treatise,  but  if  we  divided  the 
unity  or  price  of  American  money  into  27131.78  76- 
258  parts,  or  placed  it  at  a  distance  of  27131.78  76- 
258  above  the  zero  level,  then  every  perpendicular  unit 
space  in  the  diagram  would  represent  I  cent  per  pound. 
(In  our  diagram  we  have  subdivided  the  unit  space  of 
I  cent  into  8  parts  so  that  the  height  of  every  little  quad- 
rangle represents  1-8  01  a  cent  per  pound.) 

Of  course  no  page  would  be  tall  enough  to  take  in  the 
whole  diagram  but  we  are  enabled  to  give  the  idea  by 
a  common  easy  device  apparent  at  first  sight. 

As  American  money  is  always  worth  27131.78  76-258 
cents  per  avoirdupois  pound,  its  relative  value  is  repre- 
sented by  a  straight  level  line  across  the  page  at  the 
height  27131.78  76-258. 

Now  any  price  not  fluctuating  would  be  represented 
by  a  level  line,  as  we  have  indicated  a  commodity  selling 
at  2  5-8  cents  per  pound  for  the  whole  month. 

We  have  also  represented  a  commodity  at  ij  cents 
per  pound  on  the  ist,  2  cents  on  the  9th,  J  on  the  2Oth, 
i£  on  the  28th,  and  i^  on  the  3ist.  Now  by  this 
scheme  the  prices  of  all  commodities  as  compared  to 
American  money  could  be  kept  through  all  time,  each 
one  moving  in  its  proper  place  and  giving  at  a  glance 
their  relative  value  or  their  exact  position  in  trade  as 
they  affect  the  labor  of  the  world. 

This  would  be  a  most  excellent  educational  device, 
and  one  that  probably  might  be  issued  monthly  by  the 
government,  to  the  advantage  of  the  people;  at  any 
rate,  it  should  be  kept  in  any  college  where  the  science 
of  value  is  taught.  Ot  course  some  particular  prin- 
cipal market  should  be  selected. 


GRAPHIC   RECORD   OF   PRICE. 


103 


27/3l.78«8 


27131 


27130 





it 


This  illustrates  United  States  or  American  prices  of  commodities 
exchanged  by  weight  (money  included)  in  cents  per  pound. 


104  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALVE. 

This  scheme  of  course  applies  to  every  money  in  the 
world,  but  the  diagram  would  have  to  be  made  in  accord- 
ance with  each  system  of  money  and  coinage.  We  have 
made  them  for  English,  French,  and  German  coinage 
and  money,  and  the  diagrams  will  be  found  under  those 
heads.  This  scheme  shows  at  a  glance  at  any  instant 
how  many  pounds  of  any  commodity  a  pound  of  money 
will  buy,  which  shows  or  is  the  relative  value  or  price, 
besides  leaving  a  constant,  faithful,  instant,  scientific 
and  practical  record  for  future  reference. 

Now  let  us  revert  to  the  analogy  of  specific  gravity. 
If  we  did  a  corresponding  thing  for  specific  gravity, 
the  line  representing  the  specific  gravity  of  any  sub- 
stance would  be  horizontal,  that  is,  it  would  not  fluctu- 
ate, or  is  the  same  at  all  times,  and  the  specific  gravity 
of  any  number  of  substances  if  represented  in  this  way 
would  be  a  set  of  level  parallel  lines.  If  the  height  for 
the  specific  gravity  of  water  were  i,  then  the  height  of 
any  substance  having  a  specific  gravity  of  10  would  be 
at  the  height  10  above  the  zero  level,  which  height 
would  be  constant  and  a  level  line,  and  so  correspond- 
ingly with  every  other  substance. 

We  can,  after  a  fashion,  imagine  the  average  price  of 
any  commodity,  which  would  be  the  same  as  averaging 
the  fluctuations  for  a  certain  time  and  representing  the 
general  average  by  a  straight  line  across  the  page,  and 
after  some  sort  of  a  fashion  we  would  have  a  set  of  hori- 
zontal or  level  lines. 

Now  turning  to  specific  gravity,  suppose  we  take  a 
number  of  substances,  and  average  their  specific  gravity, 
we  would  get  as  a  result  a  number  that  might  be  called 
an  average  specific  gravity  of  those  substances,  but  in 


GRAPHIC   RECORD    OF   PRICE.  105 

» 

reality  would  not  mean  the  specific  gravity  of  anything, 
or  would  not  in  truth  show  or  illustrate  anything,  nor 
subserve  any  scientific  purpose,  so  far  as  I  can  see. 

So  it  would  be  if  we  averaged  the  prices  of  a  number 
of  articles;  we  can  not  imagine  an  average  price  for  a 
number  of  articles  continued  through  years  of  time  any 
better  or  hardly  as  well  as  we  can  imagine  an  average 
specific  gravity  for  a  number  of  substances;  and,  after 
all,  it  does  not  mean  the  average  price  of  any  article; 
and,  what  is  more  to  the  point,  it  does  not  seem  to  our 
mind  to  be  of  any  exact  scientific  use;  and  we  derive 
little  or  no  mental  encouragement,  support,  or  comfort 
from  the  idea,  and  do  not  see  the  logic  or  true  science 
in  any  theory  built  upon  what  are  called  average  prices 
or  averages  of  price,  whether  of  2  or  67  or  45  or  100 
articles.  To  our  mind  nearly  every  distinct  article  in 
trade  rests  upon  its  own  bottom,  as  far  as  prices  go, 
and  a  commodity  may  be  forced  to  the  skies  or  to  the 
ground  without  affecting  the  inter-relativity  of  the 
others. 

However,  the  idea  may  sometimes  subserve  some 
purpose  in  a  general  way,  in  some  few  cases,  as,  for 
instance,  showing  the  fall  of  silver  under  demonetiza- 
tion, but  certainly  no  system  of  true  monetary  science 
can  be  built  up  upon  it.  Moreover,  these  old  prices, 
etc.,  are  past,  and  Political  Economy  is  a  science  for  the 
future,  and  they  only  serve  by  comparison;  they  are 
like  paid-up  old  accounts. 

Past  time,  like  spilt  milk,  is  not  to  be  cried  over,  and 
turns  no  wheel.  It  is  the  future  that  must  be  looked 
to,  and  the  present  only  as  it  passes  that  can  be  em- 
ployed; and  the  business  of  the  political  economist  is  to 


106  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALlfE. 

do  what  he  can  to  get  and  keep  this  world  out  of  trouble, 
or  to  be  a  guide,  with  his  little  lamp  up  against  the 
black  bank  of  ignorance,  to  lead  in  the  right  road;  and 
the  first  thing  to  be  done  is  to  get  out  of  this  valley 
of  this  shadow  of  industrial  degradation,  which  is  the 
result  of  the  theory  of  the  gold  standard,  with  its  attend- 
ant sophistries,  delusions,  and  illusions. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
Coins,  Counters,  and  Paper  Money. 

A  coin  is  a  legal  ingot;  when  made  of  money,  it 
always  counts  its  own  value,  as  it  weighs  its  own 
weight,  as  do  the  gold  coins  of  the  U.  S.  and  England 
and  the  silver  dollars  of  Mexico.  When  a  coin  is  not 
made  of  money,  it  is  a  counter  for  the  value  of  the 
money  it  betokens  or  signifies,  and  is  then  called  a 
token  coin,  if  a,  token  coin  is  "good''  it  is  good  for 
the  value  of  the  money  it  betokens  or  indicates,  or  for 
the  value  of  its  name,  or  for  what  is  called  its  "nominal" 
value,  from  .  meaning  name.  Coinage  became 

general  only  a  very  long  time  after  money  was  com- 
mon, and  mankind  had  a  comparatively  fair  idea  of 
money  long  before  it  had  any  accurate  system  of 
mintage. 

The  first  thing  that  was  made  certain  was  a  definite 
weight;  the  next  thing  was  definite  material;  and  an 
.accurate  system  of  coinage  came  with  a  better  knowl- 
edge of  chemistry,  improved  processes  of  refining, 
exact  scales,  and  improved  appliances  for  melting, 
mixing,  weighing,  and  stamping.  The  operation  of 
coinage,  which  is  a  weighing  and  stamping  of  ingots 
of  metal,  must  be  preceded  by  making  standard  bullion, 
which  must  be  exact  in  composition  and  well  mixed  or 
homogeneous. 

(107) 


108  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

The  banks  of  Venice,  it  is  said,  did  business  with 
a  "'money  unit"  for  hundreds  of  years  before  they  had 
coins  struck  of  that  denomination. 

Germany  and  France  have  never  struck  any  money 
coins  of  their  single  money  unit  of  the  mark,  or  franc, 
but  they  have  struck  millions  of  multiples  thereof,  or 
millions  of  marks  and  francs.  In  the  case  of  the 
Venetian  banks  it  was  only  necessary  to  agree  in  each 
particular  case  on  the  quantity  of  money  metal  con- 
tained in  each  piece  or  lot. 

The  Bank  of  England  weighs  sovereigns  to  this  day 
rather  than  counts  them  by  tale,  or"  by  number  of  pieces, 
as  we  usually  count  money  coins,  it  being  in  effect  but 
another  way  of  weighing  money;  when  the  gold  coins 
of  the  LJ.  S.  get  below  the  "limit  of  tolerance,"  they 
are  received  by  weight. 

The  coinage  oi  coins  that  are  not  of  money  consists 
of  stamping  upon  metal  an  obligation  tacitly  implied  or 
sometimes  (as  in  the  case  of  the  U.  S.)  with  explicit 
directness  by  law  declared,  which  obligation  is  to  keep 
these  coins  as  good  as  the  money  they  indicate. 

The  only  difference  between  token  coins  and  paper 
money  is  that  in  the  latter  case  the  obligation  is 
printed  on  pieces  of  paper,  usually  called  "bills"  or 
"notes;"  in  their  nature  they  are  not  essentially  or 
scientifically  different  from  token  coins,  wherein  the 
obligation  is  stamped  upon  metal.  The  melting  of  a 
token  coin  does  not  or  ought  not  really  to  destroy  the 
obligation;  it  only  destroys  the  evidence  of  that  obliga- 
tion, and  if  it  could  be  proved  beyond  a  doubt  that 
$10,000  in  U.  S.  coin  silver  were  melted  in  a  fire,  it 
would  be  just  that  the  government  make  it  good  upon 
presentation  of  the  melted  bullion  or  junk. 


COINS,    COUNTERS    AND    PAPER    MONEY.         109 

Token  coins  or  bills  may  be  kept  as  -good  as  the 
money  they  represent,  by,  in  the  ultimate  case,  redemp- 
tion with  money,  or  when  the  number  presented  is  not 
too  great,  by  taking  them  for  public  dues,  which  is  only 
another  way  of  redeeming  them.  If  you  hold  a  note 
against  the  government  and  it  has  an  account  in  which 
there  is  a  demand  against  you  for  an  amount  equal  to 
the  note,  and  you  set  that  note  off  against  the  demand, 
then  you  are  square  or  clear;  of  course  you  surrender 
the  note,  which  ingresses  into  the  treasury.  So  it  is 
with  individuals  and  the  U.  S.  Government,  and  its 
taxes  at  the  custom-house  and  other  places. 

When  a  bill  has  entered  the  treasury,  of  course  it  is 
worth  zero  to  the  U.  S.,  or  it  represents  nothing,  it  is 
simply  an  obligation  canceled  or  non-existent;  never- 
theless, the  great  treasurer  of  the  U.  S.  calls  it  cash  or 
money  in  the  treasury,  to  the  edification  of  the  great 
public  of  the  U.  S. ;  for  it  seems  that  on  the  money  ques- 
tion it  is  possible  to  "fool  all  of  the  people  all  of  the 
time." 

Coins  made  of  money  may  belong  to  the  government, 
and  may  not,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  gold  coins  of 
England  and  the  U.  S. 

Coins  not  made  of  money  are  always  practically  the 
property  of  the  government,  for  the  very  simple  reason 
that  the  material  of  which  they  are  made  is  always  of 
less  value  than  is  the  money  which  they  represent,  or* 
in  other  words,  of  which  they  are  the  promise  to  pay; 
that  is,  they  are  simply  the  material  on  which  the 
promise  to  pay  is  engraved.  The  metal  value  of  the 
token  coin,  or  the  value  of  the  token  considered 
strictly  per  se,  without  reference  to  any  government 


110  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALVE. 

stamping  it,  meaning  the  bullion  value,  is  always  less 
than  the  money  value  which  it  represents,  because 
otherwise  people  would  never  attempt  to  redeem  it,  but 
would  melt  it  and  sell  the  junk  for  more  "redemption 
money"  than  they  could  get  by  having  it  redeemed. 
This  is  what  happens  in  the  "bimetallic"  system  of  16 
to  i,  when  16  weight  of  silver  is  worth  more  than  i 
weight  of  gold,  or  when  i  silver  dollar  is  worth  more 
than  i  gold  dollar.  This  was  remedied  in  the  United 
States  by  stopping  the  coinage  of  silver  dollars,  and 
by  making  the  half  dollars,  quarters,  etc.,  of  light 
weight,  as  was  done  in  the  United  States  in  1853,  at 
which  time  the  light  subsidiary  halves,  quarters,  etc., 
were  ordered  to  be  printed. 

A  similar  thing  now  happens  in  China,  whereby  the 
copper  "cash"  representing  a  tael  of  silver  are  worth, 
owing  to  the  recent  increase  in  the  relative  value  of 
copper,  more  than  the  tael  of  silver  which  they  repre- 
sent, whereby  thrifty  Chinese  melt  up  the  "cash"  and 
sell  it  for  junk  at  a  profit,  to  the  annoyance  of  the 
Chinese  Government,  treasury,  and  mint.  This  sort 
of  "endless  chain"  is  not  profitable  to  the  revenues  of 
China;  this  anomaly  will  probably  be  remedied  by  in 
the  future  making  the  "cash"  lighter  in  weight. 

The  coinage  of  token  coins  is  always  limited,  that  is, 
they  are  only  coined  on  government  account.  No  pri- 
vate person  or  firm  can  have  them  coined,  for  the  gov- 
ernment stands  responsible  for  their  nominal  value. 
Their  circulation  is  also  limited,  for  more  than  are 
needed  in  trade  w7ill  naturally  pile  up  in  the  treasury, 
as  is  the  case  with  the  present  United  States  silver 
dollars. 


COINS,    COUNTERS,    AND    PAPER   MONEY.         Ill 

Not  so  many  spielmarks  or  "chips"  being  needed,  nat- 
urally the  excess  piles  up  at  the  "redeemery,"  or  treas- 
ury, which  in  this  particular  case  corresponds  to  the 
"bank"  in  a  gambling  game. 

No  government  can  or  ever  has  been  able  to  issue  and 
circulate  such  tokens  unlimitedly  and  at  the  same  time 
assure  their  equal  purchasing  power  with  that  of  the 
money  they  signify  or. represent  "in  the  markets  at  all 
times." 

The  mistaken  idea  that  there  can  be  any  money  but 
a  true  weight  money  is  responsible  for  the  clap-trap 
expression  in  American  politics  of  a  "flexible"  money, 
or  of  "a  safe,  sound,  and  flexible  money,"  which  means 
nothing  and  is  a  politician's  bait  for  unwary  or  igno- 
rant voters.  "Paper  money'*  is  of  the  same  category 
with  token  coinage,  and  as  "paper  money"  may  be 
issued,  whatever  be  the  true  money  of  the  country,  it 
follows  that  it  does  not  affect  the  discussion  upon  the 
money  question  further  than  in  the  fact  that  paper 
money  expresses  debt  or  obligation.  Therefore  we 
drop  the  subject  of  paper  money  as  not  being  essential 
in  the  matter  of  monetary  discussion.  We  do  not  think 
that  general  U.  S.  "'legal  tender''  laws  are  really  neces- 
sary, or  that  they  help  the  "credit"  of  the  country.  We 
can  not  see  why  the  U.  S.  Government  should  force  its 
notes  upon  any  of  its  citizens,  and  we  regard  the  at- 
tempt or  the  act  as  unsound  and  as  arrogant  as  it 
would  be  to  force  the  note  of  any  private  citizen  upon 
any  other. 

Probably  if  there  were  no  national  "legal  tender" 
Jaws  of  any  kind,  the  finances  of  this  country  or  of 
every  country  would  necessarily  be  "sounder"  and 


112  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

could  never  at  any  time  have  gotten  very  "unsound." 
The  following  is  copied  from  a  work  on  Political 
Economy,  by  Arthur  Latham  Perry,  often  used  as  a 
text-book  in  the  colleges  and  other  schools  of  the 
U.  S.:— 

"When  after  a  long  time  the  question  of  the  con- 
stitutional right  of  Congress  to  make  a  promise  a  legal 
tender  for  debt  (for  money  G.  R.),  that  is  to  say,  to 
make  a  promise  the  same  thing  legally  as  its  fulfil- 
ment, a  monstrous  incongruity,  was  brought  up  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  U.  S.,  the  majority  of  the  court, 
including  Chief  Justice  Chase,  who,  as  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  had  recommended  the  opposite,  decided, 
after  most  elaborate  argument  and  deliberate  con- 
sideration, that  the  Constitution  gave  no  authority  to 
Congress  to  create  a  paper  legal  tender  which  could 
apply  to  pre-existing  contracts;  and  some  of  the  judges 
held  that  it  was  equally  unconstitutional  to  compel 
parties,  in  the  absence  of  mutual  agreements  to  that 
end,'  to  receive  such  paper  promises  in  fulfilment  of  con- 
tracts even  made  subsequently  to  the  passage  of  the 
law.  After  this  decision  was  thus  solemnly  rendered, 
two  new  judges,  whose  opinions  on  the  point  were 
known  beforehand,  and  who  were  selected  on  that  very 
account,  were  put  upon  the  bench,  and  this  change  in 
the  personnel  of  the  court  was  made  the  means  of  re- 
versing the  decision. 

"No  new  points  therefor  were  raised  by  either  of  the 
new  judges  or  by  the  counsel  in  the  new  trial,  and  the 
Chief  Justice  and  his  associates  still  adhered  to  their 
former  opinions.  It  is  scarcely  needful  to  add  that 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  U.  S.  suffered  in  the  judg- 


COINS,    COUNTERS,    AND    PAPER    MONEY.         113 

ment  of  good  citizens  by  that  transaction,  that  the 
best  legal  and  financial  opinion  in  the  country  yielded 
little  respect  to  a  decision  thus  secured,  and  that  in- 
telligent people  do  not  believe  that  constitutional  law 
can  sanction  what  contravenes  common  sense  and  com- 
mon morality.  Judge  Field,  one  of  the  majority  in 
the  first  decision,  uses  this  just  language  in  respect  to 
the  second,  in  which  he  could  not  concur:  'It  follows, 
then,  from  the  doctrine  advanced  by  the  majority  of 
the  court  as  to  the  power  of  Congress  over  legal  ten- 
der, that  Congress  may  borrow  gold  upon  a  pledge  to 
repay  gold  at  the  maturhy  of  its  obligations,  and  yet, 
in  direct  disregard  of  its  pledges,  in  open  violation  of 
faith,  may  compel  the  lender  to  take,  in  place  of  the 
gold  stipulated,  its  own  promises;  and  that  legislation 
of  this  character  \\ould  not  be  in  violation  of  the  Con- 
stitution, but  in  harmony  with  its  letter  and  spirit. 
AY  hat  is  this  but  declaring  that  repudiation  by  the 
government  of  the  I'nited  States  of  its  solemn  obli- 
gations would  be  constitutional?' ' 

The  financial  stability  of  the  I".  S.  does  not  in  anywise 
depend  upon  any  legal  tender  law,  but  upon  its  re- 
sources. The  resources  of  the  U.  S.  consist  in  taxes, 
and  its  ability  to  pay  depends  upon  what  it  owes  as 
compared  to  what  it  can  tax  out  of  the  Great  American 
Republic.  These  taxes  represent  the  labor  of  Amer- 
ican industry,  without  which  the  government  could 
not  stand,  and  we  are  writing  in  the  interest  of  justice, 
and  of  this  large,  uninfluential,  and  little  respected, 
industrious  class  against  whose  interests  legislation  is 
frequently,  we  might  say  usually,  directed. 

There  is  one  feature  or  function  of  token  coins  and 
8 


114  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

paper  money  not  often  explained,  which  is  the  follow- 
ing; whenever  I  own  a  paper  U.  S.  $10  bill  it  means  that 
the  U.  S.  Government  ow7es  me  $10;  \vhen  I  pass  it  tc. 
you  in  payment  of  a  $10  debt,  it  means  that  the  U.  S 
Government  now  owes  you  $10,  and  I  am  "clear"  as  fai 
as  that  $10  concerns  the  U.  S.  or  myself.  The  token 
coins  and  paper  money  oi  the  U.  S.  serve  to  estab- 
lish a  public  clearing  house,  in  which  the  number  of 
members  is  unlimited  or  only  limited  by  their  ability  to 
acquire  U.  S.  notes  and  to  use  them  in  the  payment  of 
debts.  We  have  tried  to  illustrate  this  by  the  diagram, 
in  which  U.  S.  represents  the  U.  S.  Government,  and 
the  letters  A,  etc.  represent  individuals.  A  has  a  $10 
bill,  which  means  that  the  U.  S.  owes  A  $10;  now  A 
owes  B  $10,  and  gives  him  this  bill;  now  A  has  cleared 
as  far  as  B  is  concerned,  and  the  U.  S.  has  cleared  as 
far  as  A  is  concerned  with  that  $10  bill;  now  the  lines 
U.  S.  A  and  A  B  no  longer  exist;  they  may  be  con- 
sidered as  having  "cleared"  or  disappeared,  and  B  now 
owes  C  $10,  and  gives  him  the  bill,  wherefore  B  has 
cleared  with  C,  and  the  U.  S.  with  B,  and  therefore  the 
lines  U.  S.  B  and  B  C  we  may  now  consider  as  having 
disappeared,  and  we  may  go  on  writh  the  same  reasoning 
till  we  get  to  F,  where  the  U.  S.  owes  F  $10,  as  indi- 
cated by  the  arrow  line  VI,  the  same  as  the  line  U.  S.  F; 
and  all  the  other  arrow  lines  may  be  considered  as 
non-existent;  that  is,  the  periphery  from  A  to  F  and  all 
the  radii  except  the  one  to  F.  Now  this  bill  has  paid 
$10  at  B,  C,  D,  E,  and  F,  or  $50  of  indebtedness,  and 
the  U.  S.  remains  as  it  was  before;  that  is,  it  still  owes 
this  $10,  but  instead  of  owing  it  to  A  it  owes  it  to  F. 
Now  if  F  should  o\ve  A  $10  and  pay  it,  the  bill  would 


COINS,    COUNTERS,    AND   PAPER   MONEY.         115 

be  exactly  where  it  was  at  the  beginning,  and  would 
have  paid  $60  in  debts  and  be  just  as  good  as  it  was 
before  for  an  indefinite  continuation  of  this  process. 
This  is  what  some  people  call  "discharging  the  money 
function,"  but  it  does  not  happen  to  be  the  discharg- 
ing of  the  money  function;  it  simply  acts  as  a  counter 
for  $10,  which  remains  or  can  be  gotten  at  the  U.  S. 

C 


treasury.  Some  people  seem  to  think  that  the  paying 
of  debts  is  the  "money  function,"  but  it  is  not  the 
money  function;  money  debts  are  paid  with  money; 
debts  in  bricks  are  paid  with  bricks,  and  copper  debts 
are  paid  with  copper.  Any  recognized  and  undisputed 
debt  where  time  is  not  an  element  becomes  an  order 
or  draft  such  as  is  represented  by  any  good  bank  check 
or  written  order  or  U.  S.  note,  and  if  it  is  thoroughly 
"good,"  the  debtor  is  of  undoubted  solvency  and  pos- 


116  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

sesses  the  instant  ability  and  willingness  to  pay,  and  the 
cash  awaits  its  presentation,  whereby  it  is  said  to  be 
as  "good"  as  money,  but  it  is  not  money  by  any  manner 
of  means,  and. if  it  could  not  be  exchanged  for  money 
would  never  be  said  to  be  as  good  as  money. 

Now  let  us  revert  back  to  our  U.  S.  bills;  as  debts  are 
constantly  being  incurred  and  discharged,  or  debts  are 
constantly  being  made  arid  paid,  it  happens  that  more 
bills  may  be  out  than  there  is  money  in  the  treasury  to 
redeem  all  at  any  one  time;  for  as  they  go  flying 
around  the  country  in  a  countless  multiplicity  of  direc- 
tions, they  are  not  presented  at  each  payment  for  re- 
demption, but  that  does  not  mean  that  the  U.  S.  needs 
a  legal  tender  law,  nor  that  bills  can  be  money,  nor 
that  the  U.  S.  should  not  stand  ready  at  any  moment 
to  redeem  any  possible  number  of  them  that  could  be 
presented;  for  if  she  does  not,  her  "currency"  will  cer- 
tainly be  "unsound,"  or  will  not  be  "safe,  sound,  and 
flexible."  The  only  "currency"  in  the  U.  S.  that  I 
know  of  that  can  possibly  be  "flexible"  is  the  paper 
money,  and  this  only  because  any  bill  may  be  doubled 
upon  itself  an  indefinite  number  ot  times  without 
breaking,  and  in  this  respect,  thanks  to  its  very  superior 
quality,  it  is  more  flexible  than  almost  every  other  paper 
with  which  we  are  acquainted. 

This  word  "flexible"  is  part  of  an  American  politi- 
cian's trumpery,  like  a  piece  of  "property"  in  a  theater, 
but  even  less  real,  for  the  latter  does  serve  an  honest 
purpose,  which  is  to  represent  some  idea,  while  the  for- 
mer misrepresents  the  lack  of  clear  idea. 

In  any  bank  of  deposit,  depositors  are  constantly  tak- 
ing out  and  putting  in  coin,  and  banks  consider  it  safe 


COINS,    COUNTERS,    AND   PAPER   MONEY.         117 

to  lend  a  portion  of  these  current  deposits,  say  one- 
third  or  somewhat  more,  and  draw  interest  upon  it, 
which  makes  it  possible  for  them  to  run  a  clearing  house 
and  warehouse  for  their  patrons  without  charge,  hiring 
clerks  to  keep  accounts,  paying  rent,  etc.,  and,  besides, 
borrowing  money  and  lending  again  at  higher  interest, 
and  acting  as  agents  in  various  ways  for  the  profits  that 
accrue  from  these  transactions.  This  is  when  they  do 
strictly  a  banking  business,  whereby  every  operation  is 
always  strictly  secured^  so  far  as  it  can  possibly  be 
within  reason. 

Note. — "When  the  first  issue  of  Confederate  money 
was  scattered  among  the  people,  it  was  quickly  taken 
arid  passed  at  par  everywhere  within  the  limits  of  the 
C.  S.  A.;  it  then  fell,  as  follows: — 

"June,  1861,  90  cents;  December  i,  1861,  80  cents; 
December  15,  '61,  75  cents;  February  i,  '62,  75  cents; 
February  [,  '63,  20  cents;  June,  '63,  8  cents;  January, 
'64,  2  cents;  November,  '64,  4^  cents;  January,  '65, 
2^  cents;  April,  '65,  ij  cents.  After  which  date  it 
took  from  $800  to  $1,000  in  Confederate  bills  to  buy 
a  §T.OO  greenback/' 


CHAPTER    X. 
Weight. 

Weight  is  the  result  of  the  tendency  of  matter  to  ap- 
proach gravic  centers,  like  the  center  of  the  earth. 
All  bodies  within  the  paramount  influence  of  the  earth 
as  regarding  this  tendency  are  within  its  "sphere  of  in- 
fluence," and  will  reach  it.  Gravic  centers  are  usually 
(probably  necessarily)  in  a  high  state  of  molecular  agi- 
tation (heat),  and  especially  so  if  they  be  suns  or  cen- 
ters of  planetary  systems. 

The  gravitation  of  the  earth  or  of  any  other  celestial 
body  may  be  regarded  as  residing  like  a  light  at  its 
center  (or  better  compared  to  an  incandescent  ball), 
and  as  being  dispersed  outward  as  if  it  were  light;  so 
it  varies  inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance  (or 
weakens  directly  as  the  square  of  the  distance),  and 
varies  directly  as  the  "mass"  (power  of  the  light). 
(Newton's  Laws.) 

Like  light,  it  is  dispersed  through  or  permeates  space 
according  to  the  cube  of  the  distance,  and  Kepler's 
third  law  is  probably  related  to  this  fact.  Kepler's  laws 
are  as  follows: — 

1.  "Each  planet  moves  in  an  ellipse  in  one  focus  of 
which  the  sun  is  situated." 

2.  "The    radius    vector    drawn  from  the  sun  to  the 
planet  sweeps  equal  areas  in  equal  times." 

(118) 


WEIGHT.  119 

3.  "The  squares  of  the  periodic  times  of  the  motions 
of  the  planets  round  the  sun  are  in  the  same  ratio  as 
the  cubes  of  their  mean  distances." 

Gravity  acts  instantaneously  at  illimitable  distances, 
and  time  does  not  enter  as  a  factor  in  as  far  as  what  may 
be  called  "rays"  of  gravity  are  concerned.  Not  so  with 
light;  it  takes  the  light  of  the  sun  about  8  minutes  to 
reach  the  earth.  Weight  and  gravity  are  the  same,  but 
the  word  "gravitation'1  is  employed  to  designate  the 
tendency  that  bodies  have  to  approach  gravic  centers, 
and  it  is  also  called  the  "attraction  of  gravitation." 
The  gravity  or  quantity  of  the  power  of  the  tendency  of 
bodies  to  approach  the  center  of  the  earth,  or  their 
weight,  is  expressed  or  computed  by  comparing  it  with 
the  weight  of  some  standard  piece  of  material,  a  piece  of 
brass  in  the  case  of  the  pound,  deposited  among  the 
archives  of  the  state,  as  in  the  Tower  of  London  or  in 
the  treasury  department  at  Washington. 

Different  substances  are  attracted  with  different 
power  per  cubic  unit  of  the  space  they  occupy  or  per 
equal  volume,  whereby  \\e  commonly  say  some  sub- 
stances are  heavier  than  others,  and  specific  gravity  in- 
dicates this  fact  comparatively.  For  solids  we  usually 
take  the  gravity  of  water  as  the  standard,  but  for  gases 
hydrogen  is  taken  and  sometimes  atmospheric  air. 
When  the  gravity  of  water  is  taken  as  the  standard,  the 
specific  gravity  of  a  substance  is  the  number  that  gives 
its  relative  weight  as  compared  with  the  weight  of  an 
equal  volume  of  water;  or,  if  we  may  say  so,  it  is  the 
expression  of  its  weight  in  water  weights  of  the  same 
volume.  It  tells  its  heaviness  in  water  heaviness. 

The  metric  standard  weight  is  the  weight  of  a  cubic 


120  ITALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE   OF    VALUE. 

centimeter  of  water  at  its  greatest  density,  being  4  de- 
grees Centigrade.  The  meter  is  deposited  at  Paris  and 
was  obtained  by  measuring  an  arc  of  the  earth,  being 
one-ten-millionth  of  a  quadrant.  In  the  U.  S.  and 
England  avoirdupois  weight  is  by  far  the  most  general, 
and  is  used  for  weighing  nearly  everything  but  gold  and 
silver  bullion,  money,  drugs  in  prescriptions,  and  chem- 
icals in  laboratory  experiments. 

The  grain,  troy,  avoirdupois,  and  apothecary,  is  the 
same. 

AVOIRDUPOIS. 

27B     grains     =      I     dram     =     2/-JJ    grains 
16     grams     =     I     ounce    =    437.5    grains 
1 6    ounces    =     I  pound     =  7000.0   grains 
I  Ib.    =     1 6  oz.    =   7000.  grains    —   453.5926  grammes 
I  oz.    =     437-5  grains  —      28.3495  grammes 
I      net  ton,  2000  Ibs.  =  907.  kilogrammes 
i     cu.  ft.  water  62  F.  =  62.3550  Ibs.  av.   =    28315.0000 
grammes. 

i  cu.  inch  water  62  F.  =  0.0361  Ib.  av.  =  16.3862 
grammes. 

TROY. 

24  grains  —  i  pennyweight    =  24  grains. 

20  pennyweight  ==  i  ounce    :        480       " 
12  ounces  =  i  pound  =   5760       " 

Ib.  oz.  dwt.         grain  gramme 

i  12  240    =       5760  373.2419 

i  20  480  3I-I035 

i  24  I.S552. 

i  0.0648 

The  U.  S.  Government  at  the  mints,  etc.,  divides  the 
troy  ounce  decimally  into  tenths,  hundredths,  thou- 
sandths, etc. 


1  1  'EIGHT.  121 

APOTHECARY. 


20  grains    :  =  I  scruple  =  20  grains. 

3  scruples  ==  I  dram      —  60      " 

8  drams        =  I  ounce  480      " 
12  ounces  ==  I  pound 


Ib. 

oz. 

dr. 

scruple 

grain 

j     -  — 

12 

96 

=    288    = 

5760 

I 

=      8 

24 

480 

i 

3    = 

60 

j    — 

20 

gramme 
373.2419 


3-8879 
1.2960 


METRIC. 


The  gramme  of  the  metric  system  is  divided  deci- 
mally into  doci.  conn,  and  milli-grammes  and  multiplied 
into  deka,  hecto,  and  kilogrammes.  The  kilogramme 
of  i  ,000  grammes  is  the  unit  for  weighing  heavy  arti- 
cles. 

Ib.  av.  oz.  av.  grains     gramme 

0.0022          0.03527  I5-4328    =    i 

yard  feet          inch  metre 

i  3  36  0.91438 

I  12  =         0.30480 

I  0.02540 

39.3708  T.  ooooo 

It  would  be  of  great  advantage  or  of  increased  con- 
venience if  the  pound  avoirdupois  were  divided  into 
tenths  and  hundredths  rather  than  into  sixteenths,  etc. 
Troy  weight  is  used  for  weighing  silver  and  gold  bul- 
lion only,  and  usually  the  ounce  is  the  denomination 
used,  as  '"400  ounces  of  gold,"  ''5,000  ounces  of  silver, 
etc."  It  would  be  vastly  to  the  advantage  of  the  Amer- 
ican as  well  as  ot  the  British  people  to  discard  the  troy 
ounce  altogether  and  have  governmental  and  other  pur- 


122  VAL1CS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

chases  of  gold  and  silver  given  in  avoirdupois  pounds, 
divided  decimally  into  tenths,  hundredths,  etc.,  as  it 
would  tend  to  harmonize  matters  and  to  familiarize  the 
people  with  the  proportions  by  weight  between  the 
quantities  of  gold  and  silver  and  other  articles  of  mer- 
chandise. 

Apothecaries  weight  is  used  in  putting  up  prescrip- 
tions, though  the  metric  system  is  also  sometimes  used. 

THE     DOLLAR     WEIGHT 

Is  used  to  weigh  the  money  of  the  U.  S.,  and  is,  there- 
fore, the  U.  S.  money  weight  or  monetary  unit  or 
money  unit.  It  is  divided  into  halves,  quarters,  tenths 
or  dimes,  hundredths  or  cents,  and  thousandths  or  mills. 

The  dollar  is  a  unit  weight  (25.8  grs.)  of  U.  S.  money, 
and  its  value  is  a  unit  value  for  the  purpose  of  valuing 
U.  S.  value  or  "wealth,"  arid  is  called  a  dollar's  worth, 
or  the  value  of  a  dollar,  or  sometimes  simply  "dollar" 
or  "dollars,"  as,  for  instance,  "the  loss  was  a  dollar,"  or 
the  loss  in  property  was  5,000  dollars;  as,  for  instance, 
when  Chicago  went  up  in  flames,  the  loss  was  so  many 
millions  of  dollars,  although  the  loss  of  gold  in  the  de- 
bris or  otherwise  was  comparatively  inconsiderable. 
The  loss  in  fact  was  the  amount  of  labor  required  to  buy 
enough  dollars  to  replace  Chicago.  The  U.  S.  gold 
dollar  is  .900  fine,  containing  23.22  grains  of  pure  gold 
and  2.58  grains  of  pure  copper;  387  troy  ounces  of  pure 
gold  with  43  ounces  of  copper  make  $8,000  at  the  U.  S. 
mint. 

There  are  in  an  avoirdupois  pound  of  U.  S.  gold 
271.3178  76-258  dollars,  and  in  a  ton  there  are 
542,635.65  230-258  dollars. 


WEIGHT.  123 

THE     SILVER     DOLLAR     WEIGHT 

Is  not  used  in  trade  further  than  that  it  is  the  uniform 
weight  at  which  the  silver  dollar  tokens  for  a  gold  dollar 
are  minted;  it  is  412.5  grains;  they  are  nine-tenths  sil- 
ver, containing  371.25  grains  pure  silver,  the  rest  cop- 
per. Also  among  the  vagaries  of  the  U.  S.  treasury  is 
one  which  sometimes  reports  the  silver  bullion  on  hand 
as  so  many  "dollars'  "  "coinage  value,"  meaning  so 
much  bullion  as  will  make  so  many  silver  dollars. 
This  only  puzzles  the  well-beloved  common  people, 
and  it  would  be  better  that  it  were  inventoried  in  troy 
ounces  or  in  avoirdupois  pounds  at  so  much  per  ounce 
or  pound  according  to  its  value  in  U.  S.  money,  as  an 
asset  of  the  treasury  of  the  United  States. 

THE     ASSAY     TON. 

The  assay  ton  is  a  weight  of  29,166^3  milligrammes 
used  by  assayers  lor  assaying  gold  and  silver  ores. 

There  are  29,166  2-3  troy  ounces  in  a  ton  of  2,000 
pounds  avoirdupois.  Now  if  the  assayer  having  a  sam- 
ple of  a  lot  of  ore  well  taken,  mixed,  and  powdered, 
takes  from  it  i  "assay  ton"  and  finds  that  it  contains  I 
milligramme  of  gold,  he  says  that  the  ore  "goes"  one 
ounce  in  gold  to  the  ton,  and  so  with  silver.  Each 
milligramme  of  precious  metal  that  he  finds  in  an  "assay 
ton"  means  the  proportion  of  i  ounce  to  the  ton.  If 
the  assayer  should  take  a  1-2  assay  ton  (which  he  often 
does)  and  multiply  the  weight  of  precious  metal  ex- 
tracted by  2,  the  result  would  be  the  same,  and  similarly 
with  tenths,  etc.  Assay  ton  weights  are  bought,  like 
gramme  weights,  etc.,  at  supply  houses,  and  they 


124  VAL1CS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

usually  come  in  convenient  sets,  appropriately  subdi- 
vided, etc. 

This  system  of  weights,  which  is  a  great  convenience, 
was  devised  by  Prbiessor  Chandler,  of  Columbia 
College. 

A  troy  ounce  of  American  money  is  worth  as  many 
dollars  as  480  will  contain  25.8,  which  is  18.60  120-258. 

A  U.  S.  gold  dollar  contains  23.22  grains  of  pure 
gold.  Divide  480  by  23.22,  and  it  will  give  the  number 
of  gold  dollars  that  will  contain  the  gold  of  a  troy  ounce 
of  pure  gold,  which  is  20.67183;  therefore,  this  is  said 
to  be  the  value  in  dollars  of  a  troy  ounce  of  pure  gold, 
no  account  being  taken  of  copper  or  of  labor;  but  the 
U.  S.  coins  gold  free  of  charge,  and  of  course  furnishes 
the  copper  free;  so  also  practically  does  England. 
Pure  gold  is  worth  $20.67  per  troy  ounce,  which  is  the 
credit  given  at  the  U.  S.  mint. 

14  7-12  ounces  troy  is  I  pound  avoirdupois;  so,  mul- 
tiplying troy  ounces  by  this  number,  converts  the 
weight  into  pounds  avoirdupois. 

The  pound  troy  is  to  the  pound  avoirdupois  as  5,760 
is  to  7,000,  or  as  144  is  to  175.  The  ounce  troy  is  to 
the  ounce  avoirdupois  as  192  is  to  175. 

The  specific  gravity  of  cast  pure  gold  is  19.258,  and 
the  weight  of  a  cubic  foot  of  water  is  62.355  pounds, 
which  gives  1,200.83259  pounds  as  the  weight  of  a  cubic 
foot  of  gold;  therefore,  i  3-4  cubic  feet  of  pure  gold 
Aveigh  a  ton  very  nearly. 

Avoirdupois,  French  avoir  du  pois,  from  old  French 
avoirs  de  pois,  i.  e.,  things  that  sell  by  weight  (and  not 
by  measurement),  commodities  of  weight,  from  avoir  to 
have,  Latin  habeo,  and  French  poid,  a  weight  or  load. 


WEIGHT.  125 

Old  French  pois  poix,  from  Latin  pensum,  anything 
weighed,  a  weight.  The  d  of  poids  was  introduced  er- 
roneously into  poids  because  it  was  thought  the  word 
came  directly  from  the  Latin  pondus,  meaning  a  weight. 
(Webster.) 

Avoir  in  French  means  to  have,  and  also  means  prop- 
erty, belongings,  possessions,  goods,  and  is  of  the  same 
strain  as  the  English  verb  to  have,  indicating  possession, 
and  the  Spanish  verb  haber,  indicating  the  same,  and 
also  meaning  belongings,  also  with  the  German  haben, 
Latin  lidbere,  etc. 

Naturally,  there  are  a  host  of  relatives  in  many  lan- 
guages, such  as  habit,  habiliment,  ability,  Spanish 
habilidad,  Latin  ]i<ilrililas,  able,  Latin  liabilis,  Spanish 
habil,  happen  (to  have  referring  to  time),  happy  (as  is 
one  in  the  possession  of  what  he  desires).  Happ  is 
Icelandic  for  unexpected  good  luck.  Heavy  means 
about  the  same  as  have-y  (that  is,  having  much  weight). 

Haven,  a  safe  place,  where  one  is  protected  from 
harm,  or  safely  had  or  held,  heaven  a  haven  of  happi- 
ness, etc.,  etc. 

Troy,  named  after  a  weight  used  at  the  fair  of  Troyes, 
a  town  in  France,  southeast  of  Paris.  The  troy  ounce 
is  supposed  to  have  been  brought  from  Cairo  during 
the  crusades,  and  adopted  in  Troyes,  from  whence  it 
spread. 


CHAPTER    XL 
Older  Money,  Coins,  Trade,  and  Industry. 

Two  things  absolutely  essential  in  money  are  weight 
and  value,  but  as  every  substance  with  which  we  are 
acquainted  has  weight,  therefore  the  one  absolutely  es- 
sential thing  to  find  in  a  money  is  value;  for  the  value 
of  any  quantity  of  anything  having  no  value  would  be 
zero,  and  could  in  nowise  serve  as  a  measure  of  value 
any  more  than  any  quantity  of  anything  having  no 
weight  could  serve  as  a  standard  of  weight. 

But  there  are  many  attributes  that  are  convenient  to 
have  in  money  which  reduce  the  substances  that  satis- 
factorily fulfil  these  conditions  to  very  few,  and  it  will 
be  noticed  that  these  attributes  cluster  about  the  word 
accountability. 

Anything  not  worth  accounting  is  "of  no  account." 
A  money  should  be  something  definite,  preservable,  and 
deliverable,  is  better  solid  than  liquid,  should  be  homo- 
geneous, not  brittle  or  friable,  a  stable  substance,  not 
likely  to  change  by  corroding  or  oxidizing  or  burning 
up  or  dissolving,  should  be  capable  of  being  well 
marked  or  certified  to,  and  should  be  easily  recogniz- 
able. This  last  property  is  possessed  by  every  metal, 
and  all  these  desirable  qualities  are  possessed  in  a  high 
degree  by  gold,  silver,  nickel,  and  copper,  but  espe- 
cially so  by  silver  and  gold,  and  for  various  reasons  most 

(126) 


OLDER   MONEY,    COINS,   ETC.  127 

especially  so  by  silver;  for  it  is  especially  expedient  that 
the  industrious  world  should  demand  the  abandonment 
of  gold  money;  but  this  is  due,  not  so  much  on  account 
of  fault  to  be  found  with  the  metal  of  itself  as  a  money 
metal  so  much  as  of  the  fact  that  public  policy  or  true 
political  or  public  economy  demands  that  the  value  of 
gold  should  Le  unsparingly  broken.  From  what  has 
already  been  said  on  the  subject  of  money  and  value  it 
is  plain  that  almost  as  soon  as  men  could  weigh  accu- 
rately and  became  industrious  and  commercially  in- 
clined they  would  get  an  idea  of  money. 

The  invention  of  the  balance  or  steelyards  and  the 
adoption  of  any  standard  weight  would  surely  be  suc- 
ceeded at  small  length  of  time  by  the  idea  of  money, 
or  the  notion  of  comparative  prices  or  relative  value, 
which  would  enter  a  man's  head  even  when  he  was  a 
very  rude  accountant.  With  the  invention  of  letters 
and  the  introduction  of  Arabic  or  decimal  notation 
these  things  moved  very  rapidly.  There  is  much  that 
tends  to  show  that  the  first  money  used  by  man  was 
common  salt.  In  fact,  the  mind  can  see  at  a  glance  that 
the  first  great  step  taken  by  man  was  the  invention  of 
fire;  the  second  was  the  invention  of  pottery;  third,  salt 
making;  fourth,  manufacture  of  metals,  copper,  and 
tin,  which,  alloyed,  form  bronze  and  then  iron. 

The  bronze  age  overlapped  the  iron  age,  and  only 
went  out  when  ironworking  had  acquired  very  respec- 
table perfection  and  as  steel  and  wrotight  iron  came  in. 
There  is  no  clear  line  of  demarcation,  but  it  often  hap- 
pened in  old  times  of  little  communication  that  different 
people  were  at  the  same  time  in  very  greatly  different 
stages  of  civilization.  The  same  is  true  now,  but  in  far 


128  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

less  degree,  and  not  at  all  true  as  regards  all  the  ad- 
vanced nations  of  the  earth,  for  any  discovery  is  quickly 
disseminated  among  the  progressive  people  of  the 
world. 

Salt  currency  was  in  use  in  Africa  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, and  still  is  used  thus  in  some  parts  of  Abyssinia. 

Marco  Polo  wrote  that  salt  was  a  common  medium 
of  exchange  among  certain  Asiatic  people  in  the  thir- 
teenth century.  In  Tibet  pieces  of  salt  shaped  in  a 
mould  and  weighing  about  1-2  a  pound  each  served  as 
small  exchange,  eighty  such  pieces  having  a  value  equal 
to  about  $3.00.  The  Thracians  of  old,  bartered  slaves 
for  salt.  Felix  Dubois,  in  his  "Timbuctoo,  the  Myste- 
rious," comments  on  the  varieties  of  salt  in  the  interior 
of  the  Soudan,  and  says  it  is  the  most  valuable  commod- 
ity of  that  region,  the  true  gold  of  the  Soudanese.  The 
Indians  of  South  and  Central  America  frequently  bar- 
ter with  salt  in  the  market  places  or  plazas,  sometimes 
using  measures  of  it  as  a  species  of  small  change  in  petty 
transactions.  Evil  spirits  can  not  bear  the  presence  of 
salt,  and  there  is  an  immensity  of  folk  lore  or  old  tradi- 
tion connected  with  salt,  in  all  of  \vhich  salt  acts  the 
beneficent  or  propitious  part. 

Scotch  fishermen  salt  their  nets  "for  luck;"  3  grains  of 
salt  in  a  milk  pot  will  keep  witches  away,  according  to 
the  peasants  of  the  Hartz  Mountains. 

In  Bohemia  a  mother  protects  her  daughter  from 
the  evil  eye  by  putting  a  little  bread  and  salt  in  her 
pocket,  and  sprinkles  salt  on  the  ground  that  she  may 
not  lose  her  way.  It  is  unlucky  to  spill  salt,  but  this 
bad  luck  may  be  averted  by  throwing  some  of  the  same 
salt  over  the  shoulder. 


OLDER   MONEY,    COINS,   ETC.  129 

There  is  philological  evidence  that  salt  anciently  was 
money;  for  instance,  salarium  is  the  old  Roman  word  for 
wages,  the  same  as  our  word  "salary." 

To  say  that  a  man  ''is  not  worth  his  salt"  is  probably 
taken  from  very  ancient  times,  meaning  that  he  was  not 
worth  his  salary,  rather  than  not  worth  the  salt  he  might 
consume.  The  "salt  of  the  earth"  probably  means,  by 
a  figure  of  speech,  the  most  precious  thing  of  the  earth, 
the  good  people  of  the  earth,  the  industrious  world. 
"But  if  the  salt  have  lost  his  savor,  wherewithal  shall 
it  be  salted;"  but  if  these  entirely  lose  their  intelligence 
or  their  virtue,  how  shall  it  be  returned  to  them,  or  from 
where  may  it  be  derived  anew? 

It  may  be  that  to  sell  a  thing  is  to  get  salt  for  it;  sale 
is  the  corresponding  noun.  To  salute  a  man  is  to  ask 
after  his  health,  or  perhaps  after  his  value  or  wealth,  or 
perhaps  after  his  weal  or  welfare,  which  would  include 
all  things  favorable  to  him.  There  is  a  kinship  between 
the  words  well,  weal,  wealth,  welfare,  value,  feelings, 
etc.  As  might  be  expected,  the  word  for  salt  is  similar 
in  many  languages;  Anglo  Saxon,  sealt;  Dutch,  zout; 
Icelandic,  Danish,  Swedish,  and  Gothic,  salt;  German, 
salz;  French,  sel;  Italian,  sale;  Spanish,  sal;  Russian, 
sole;  Latin,  sal;  Welch,  hale,  halen;  Greek,  hals;  Sans- 
krit, sara;  Irish  and  Gaelic,  salann. 

The  Arabic  word  salam  means  peace,  safety,  also  a 
salutation,  also  a  low  bow  in  token  of  obeisance.  To 
eat  salt  with  an  Arab  is  supposed  to  insure  hospitable 
protection. 

Hebrew,  slialaui,  peace;  shalam,  to  be  safe;  shiloh, 
rest,  peace.  "The  scepter  shall  not  depart  from  Judah 
nor  a  lawgiver  from  under  his  feet  until  Shiloh  come, 


130  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

and  unto  Him  shall  the  gathering  of  the  people  be." 
There  are  an  immense  number  of  related  salt  words, 
such  as  sauce,  salad,  sausage,  souse,  saline,  salute,  solu- 
tion, save,  salve,  solve,  hale,  holy.  As  metals  came  into 
more  general  knowledge,  the  salt  salary  was  replaced  by 
a  bronze  salary,  less  destructible,  more  accountable,  and 
more  convenient. 

The  first  Roman  coin  of  bronze  was  called  a  solidus, 
meaning  entire  or  whole,  as  it  was  originally  made  for 
paying  to  soldiers,  and,  as  it  is  said,  called  thus  because 
a  soldier's  salary  for  a  certain  time  came  in  a  solid  chunk, 
whereas  it  is  possible  that  this  contradistinguished  it 
from  the  salt  salary,  that  was  broken  up  or  granular,  and 
could  not  be  marked  or  impressed  with  its  own  weight. 
It  also  came  to  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  paying  other 
public  employees,  and  the  word  solidarium  came  to 
mean  the  same  thing  as  stipend,  or  salary  of  servants, 
or  as  the  word  salariurn.  From  this  probably  comes 
the  old  English  word  solde,  meaning  wages,  same  as  the 
Spanish  sueldo  and  Italian  soldo,  meaning  wages,  may 
have  come  into  England  during  the  Roman  occupation; 
there  is  also  an  Italian  word  soldo,  the  hundredth  lira. 
Soldonniere,  French,  is  one  taken  in  pay,  a  stipendiary. 
In  Italian  soldato  is  soldier,  and  soldare,  to  keep 
soldiers  in  pay,  to  enlist,  to  recruit;  soldarius  (Latin) 
is  soldier,  literally,  one  having  pay,  a  salaried  man,  a 
hireling,  from  soldus  soldum  (corrupted  from  solidus 
solidum),  meaning  pay.  The  true  original  Latin  word 
for  soldier  is  miles,  militis.  It  may  be  that  originally 
mercenaries  or  paid  soldiers  were  called  thus  to  distin- 
guish them  from  Creoles  or  patriots  or  natives  of  the 
country  or  patria  or  fatherland  who  received  no  pay  or 


OLDER   MONEY,    COINS,   ETC.  131 

who  were  obliged  to  render  some  gratuitous  service. 

In  Spanish  to  this  day  the  word  patriota  carries  the 
idea  of  one  who  serves  the  public  without  pay  or 
patrioticamente.  In  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  soldier 
is  soldado;  in  French,  soldal;  German,  zoldat. 

In  old  French,  solder  means  pay,  and  we  use  about 
the  same  metal  to  braise  with  or  as  a  very  hard  solder. 

It  may  be  that  the  English  word  sold  is  from  the 
same  source  and  was  not  originally  the  past  form  of 
sell  (to  get  salt  for),  and  that  the  verb  to  sell  is  a  com- 
pound verb  like  the  verb  to  be.  However,  it  seems  to 
be  analogous  with  tell,  tale,  told.  However,  the  ety- 
mology of  these  and  kindred  and  other  relevant  words 
is  not  quite  clear  and  furnishes  a  subject  for  a  good 
thesis  by  a  member  of  the  class  '01. 

Of  the  seven  ancient  metals,  Silver,  Gold,  Copper, 
Lead,  Tin,  Quicksilver,  and  Iron,  all  have  been  used  for 
money  except  quicksilver,  which  was  too  mercurial, 
elusive,  evasive,  cursive. 

Among  these  is  iron,  and  we  think  the  word  earn  or 
to  earn  is  derived  from  the  word  iron  or  from  the  word 
formerly  used  for  iron.  The  Icelandic  for  iron  is  jam; 
the  Danish  and  Swedish,  jern;  the  Irish,  iarran,  earran, 
iarun;  Welsh,  haiarn. 

We  do  not  believe  in  the  etymology  that  would  de- 
rive the  word  earn  or  to  earn  from  the  Anglo  Saxon 
earnian,  old  German  arncn  and  arnon,  and  modern 
German  ernten,  meaning  to  reap,  although  probably  the 
sign  of  the  idea  to  reap  comes  from  putting  an  iron  into 
the  crop  and  was  nearly  the  same  as  to  iron  it.  Ger- 
man words  arin,  arcn,  am,  and  modern  German  ernte 
mean  a  harvest,  to  which  derivation  the  word  earn  is 


132  VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

usually  traced  in  accepted  dictionaries.  We  are  a  be- 
liever in  what  may  be  called  the  Darwinian  theory  of 
language,  and  that  ideas  must  spring  up  before  words, 
and  that  little  or  no  reaping  was  done  by  our  lingual 
ancestors  until  after  the  use  of  iron  became  compara- 
tively common  and  there  were  many  ways  of  earning 
besides  reaping  or  harvesting,  especially  among  woods- 
men, fishermen,  hunters,  and  herdsmen. 

We  believe  that  iron  was  at  first  very  valuable,  and 
might  have  been  used  for  money,  or  to  pay  wages  with, 
and  a  very  useful  thing  in  the  manufacture  of  a  hunter's 
weapons.  An  axe  and  especially  a  knife  is  almost  in- 
dispensable in  any  family.  To  earn  anything  was  to 
iron  it,  to  exchange  it  for  iron,  whether  it  were  labor  or 
some  commodity,  and  was  about  the  same  as  to  sell 
it  or  get  salt  for  it.  It  was  to  get  something  perma- 
nently valuable. 

In  Scotland,  as  well  as  in  many  places  in  England 
and  Ireland,  the  common  word  for  earn  is  the  same  as 
that  for  iron. 

"Coffins  stood  round  like  open  presses, 

That  shawed  the  dead  in  their  last  dresses, 

And  by  some  devilish  cantrip  sleight, 

Each  in  his  cauld  hand  held  a  light, 

By  which  heroic  Tarn  was  able 

To  note,  upon  the  haly  table, 

A  murd'rer's  banes  in  gibbet  aims, 

Twa,  span  long,  wee  unchristened  bairns." 

("Tarn  O'Shanter,"  Burns.) 

To  earn  may  be  to  hire-n  and  iron  hire-n. 

The  use  of  Money  is  very  ancient,  and  far  precedes 
any  system  of  perfect  coinage,  and  the  idea  of  money 
was  extant  long  before  the  dawn  of  history. 


OLDER  MONEY,    COINS,   ETC.  133 

An  ancient  and  much  quoted  mention  of  money  is 
made  in  the  twenty-third  chapter  of  Genesis,  given  the 
date  1860  B.  C,  when  in  a  very  thoroughly  solemnized 
real  estate  transaction  Abraham  bought  the  field  of  the 
Cave  of  Machpelah  from  Ephron  the  Hittite  for  400 
shekels  of  silver,  "current  money  with  the  merchant," 
meaning  current  money  among  merchants,  meaning 
also  possibly  standard  money,  acceptable  money,  money 
up  to  the  mark. 

A  shekel  is  224  grains.  Joseph  was  sold  by  his 
brethren  for  20  pieces  of  silver. 

His  brethren  took  money  with  them  with  which  to 
buy  corn  in  Egypt. 

This  silver  may  possibly  have  come  from  Spain. 
The  process  of  lead  smelting  was  known  in  exceedingly 
ancient  times  and  carried  on  as  in  the  Mexican  adobe 
furnaces.  In  times  as  ancient  the  purification  of  silver 
and  gold  by  "rupellation"  was  effected  substantially  as 
it  is  now.  In  this  operation  the  precious  metals  are 
fused  with  lead  in  a  current  of  hot  air  and  upon  a  bed  of 
bone-ash.  The  molten  oxide  of  lead  (litharge)  sub- 
siding into  the  bone- ash  drags  the  intermixed  impuri- 
ties with  it,  leaving  the  precious  metals  free  of  impu- 
rity. '"Tried  by  fire,"  "proved  by  fire/'  the  "trial  of 
fire"  are  ancient  expressions  referring  to  this  practise. 
A  man  "tried  by  fire"  meant  one  fully  to  be  relied  upon, 
that  is,  utterly  genuine  or  pure,  and  it  may  be  that  the 
expression  "baptize  with  fire"  used  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, refers  to  the  same  idea,  and  would  mean  to  purify, 
as  precious  metals  are  purified  by  this  baptism  of  fire. 
Matthew  3:11;  Mark  1:8;  Luke  3:16;  John  1:33. 

"Behold  1  have  refined  thee,  but  not  for  silver,  I  have 


134  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

chosen  thee  in  the  furnace  of  affliction."  Isaiah  48:10. 
See  Zechariah  13:9;  Malachi  3:2;  Psalms  12:6;  Isaiah 
1:22. 

They  are  all  grievous  revolters  walking  with  slan- 
ders. They  are  brass  and  iron;  they  are  all  corrupters. 

"The  bellows  are  burned,  the  lead  is  consumed  of  the 
fire,  the  founder  melteth  in  vain;  for  the  wicked  are  not 
plucked  away.  The  refuse  from  silver  shall  men  call 
them,  for  the  Lord  hath  rejected  them."  Jeremiah 
6:29. 

"As  they  gather  silver  and  brass  and  iron  and  lead 
and  tin  into  the  midst  of  the  furnace  to  blow  the  fire 
upon  it  to  melt  it,  so  will  I  gather  you  in  mine  anger 
and  in  my  fury,  and  I  will  leave  you  there  and  melt 
you/'  Ezekiel  22,  verses  18  to  24,  also  26  to  29. 

So  much  for  this  process  of  refining;  it  shows  that 
tne  ancients  were  well  acquainted  with  it. 

Isaiah  wrote  about  750  B.  C.,  Ezekiel  about  600. 
Something  was  known  about  mining,  see  Job,  chapter 
28.  Surel}*  there  is  a  vein  for  silver  and  a  place  for  gold 
where  they  fine  it  (refine,  purify,  separate,  segregate 
it).  The  date  ascribed  to  Job  is  about  1250  B.  C.  In 
the  spoil  of  the  Midianites  six  metals  are  mentioned; 
the  one  lacking  of  the  seven  metals  of  the  ancients  is 
quicksilver  (brass  is  supposed  to  mean  copper).  Num- 
bers 23,  verses  22,  23,  50,  51,  52,  54,  etc.  In  2  Kings, 
chapter  /,  there  is  something  about  prices.  In  2  Kings, 
chapter  12,  is  an  interesting  account  of  the  building 
of  a  house  or  temple,  and  mention  is  here  first  made 
of  a  regular  contribution  box.  "And  it  was  so  that 
when  they  saw  that  there  was  much  money  in  the  chest, 
that  the  king's  scribe  and  the  high  priest  came  up, 


OLDER  MONEY,   COINS,   ETC.  135 

and  they  bound  up  the  bags,  and  told  the  money  that 
was  found  in  the  house  of  the  Lord;  and  they  laid  it 
out  to  the  carpenters  and  builders  that  wrought  upon 
the  house  of  the  Lord.  And  to  masons  and  to  hewers 
of  stone  and  to  buy  timber  and  hewed  stone  to  repair 
the  breaches  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  for  all  that 
was  laid  out  for  the  house  to  repair  it.  Howbeit,  there 
were  not  made  for  the  house  of  the  Lord  bowls  of  silver, 
snuffers,  basins,  trumpets,  any  vessels  of  gold  or  vessels 
of  silver  of  the  money  that  was  brought  into  the  house 
of  the  Lord.  But  they  gave  that  to  the  workmen,  and 
repaired  therewith  the  house  of  the  Lord."  This  was 
about  878  years  before  Christ.  The  invention  of  coin- 
age dates  from  about  700  B.  C. 

So  here  we  have  a  well-ordered  and  important  piece 
of  work  going  on,  and  the  wages  of  men  paid  in  gold 
and  silver,  long  before  the  invention  of  coinage.  It 
would  have  been  fortunate  had  the  ratio  been  given  in 
this  concurrent  circulation. 

\Y"e  subjoin  the  following,  taken  mainly  from  the  Ox- 
ford Teachers'  Bible. 

Jewish  weights  and  money. 

i.  "Weights.  The  invention  of  coining,  that  is,  the 
practise  of  stamping  pieces  of  gold  and  silver  for  the 
purpose  of  currency,  dates  from  about  B.  C.  700. 

This  innovation,  which  to  a  great  extent  succeeded 
the  use  of  the  balance,  originated  in  Lydia.  From  Asia 
Minor  it  spread  into  Greece,  but  it  had  not  penetrated 
into  Syria  before  the  Babylonian  conquest  of  Judah, 
about  600  B.  C.  After  the  return  from  the  captivity, 
536  B.  C.,  there  is  still  no  evidence  that  the  jews  pos- 
sessed any  native  currency  until  the  time  of  Simon  Mac- 


136  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

cabaeus,  who  freed  them  from  the  foreign  yoke,  13.  C. 
141. 

Wherever  mention  is  made  of  money  before  this  date 
in  the  Old  Testament,  either  bullion  money  or  the  coin- 
age of  the  Persians  or  Syrians  is  to  be  understood.  The 
precious  metals  had,  however,  always  been  used  from 
the  earliest  times  in  the  shape  of  bars,  ingots,  or  rings, 
which  were  weighed  in  the  balance  according  to  a 
system  of  weight  which  the  Jews  had  adopted  with  mod- 
ifications from  the  Phoenicians  and  Assyrians.  The 
principal  weights  in  use  for  numerous  objects,  especially 
the  metals,  were  the  following: — 

Gerah      =     -gV  shekel  =  11.2  grains 

Rebah     =      }£       "  56 

Bekah     =      %  112 

Shekel  =  i  "  224 

Maneh  or  mina  =  50  "  =  11239 

Kikkar  or  talent  =  60  maneh  =  674392 

The  talent  is  96  avoirdupois  pounds  and  2,392  grains, 
or  about  96.34  avoirdupois  pounds. 

It  is  1,404  troy  ounces  and  472  grains,  or  lacks  8 
grains  of  being  1,405  troy  ounces. 

A  shekel,  224  grains,  is  exactly  7-15  of  a  troy  ounce, 
or  15  shekels  make  7  troy  ounces. 

Silver  is  quoted  now — 1900 — at  about  60  cents  per 
ounce  troy,  so  that  a  shekel  of  silver  would  be  worth 
now  about  28  .cents.  The  purchasing  power  was  for 
ordinary  commodities  much  greater  in  those  times  than 
now,  and  also  it  bought  much  more  labor  than  it  would 
now,  at  least  in  the  United  States,  on  the  average.  In 
addition  to  the  above  there  was  a  special  talent  and 
maneh  used  only  for  gold  based  upon  a  gold  shekel  of 
253  grains.  The  gold  shekel  was  tariffed  at  15  shekels 


OLDER   MONEY,    COINS,   ETC.  137 

of  224  grains  or  253  grains  of  gold  at  3,360  grains  of 
silver,  which  would  indicate  a  ratio  of  about  13.2.  The 
gold  shekel  was  about  2  pounds  sterling,  or  $9.60, 
reckoned  as  pure  gold  23.22  grains  to  the  dollar  (of 
course  this  count  is  short  the  copper,  and  the  American 
dollar  is  not  23.22  grains  of  gold,  as  is  so  often  erron- 
eously stated,  but  it  is  nothing  less  nor  more  than  ex- 
actly 25.8  grains  of  the  gold  coin,  or  money  of  the 
United  States). 

In  the  above  table  the  shekel  signifying  "weight"  is 
the  unit,  of  which  the  rest  are  multiples  and  subnutl- 
tiples  (fractions).  The  word  gerah  means  a  grain  or 
bean;  rebah,  quarter;  belcah,  half;  maneh,  part  (in  the 
authorized  version  ''pound");  kikkar,  circle,  globe,  or 
disk.  Hebrew  names  of  weights  are  not  found  in  the 
New  Testament,  though  the  Greek  word  mna  (Luke 
19:13)  is  doubtless  identical  with  the  Hebrew  maneli. 

(Note. — There  is  some  mistake  somewhere  in  the 
above,  for  50  times  224  is  11,200  instead  of  11,239,  an<^ 
60  times  11,239  is  674,340,  instead  of  674,392.) 

2.  Coins. 

The  earliest  struck  coins  as  distinguished  from  the 
more  ancient  bullion  money  mentioned  in  the  Bible  are 
the  Adarkon  and  the  Darkemon  A.  V.  "Drams"  (Ezra 
8:27,  Nehemiah  7:72),  which  are  doubtless  the  Persian 
gold  Darics  first  issued  in  the  reign  of  Darius  Hystaspes, 
B.  C.  521-485. 

The  Darics  were  the  standard  gold  currency  down  to 
the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  they  circulated 
throughout  the  East.  The  obverse  of  the  coin  bears 
an  impress  of  the  Persian  monarch  kneeling,  holding  a 
bow  in  his  left  hand  and  a  spear  in  the  right. 


138  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

The  Baric  weighed  130  grains  or  about  $5.28  gold. 
After  the  Macedonion  conquest  and  the  subsequent 
partitioning  of  Alexander's  empire,  the  Jews  while  trib- 
utary to  the  Ptolemies  and  Seleucidae  made  use  of  the 
coins  of  Egypt  and  the  Phoenician  ports,  tetradrachms, 
didrachms,  and  drachms  (2  Mace.  14-19),  equivalent 
to  the  shekel,  -J  shekel,  and  -|  shekel. 

The  earliest  native  Jewish  coins  are  shekels  and  half 
shekels  of  silver  and  sixth  shekels  of  bronze,  attributed 
to  Simon  Maccabaeus,  to  whom  special  authority  was 
granted  by  Antiochus  VII  (Sidetes)  B.  C.  141,  to  coin 
money  with  his  own  stamp. 

"I  give  thee  leave  to  coin  money  for  the  country  with 
thine  own  stamp/'  (i  Mace.  15:6.) 

The  shekel,  which  was  of  the  ancient  Jewish  weight, 
224  grains,  has  on  the  obverse  a  cup  or  chalice,  with  the 
inscription  (shekel  of  Israel)  in  the  old  Hebrew  charac- 
ters, and  the  Hebrew  numerals,  1-5,  referring  to  the 
official  years  of  Simon's  rule,  corresponding  to  B.  C. 
141-137.  On  the  reverse  is  a  triple  lily,  or  according 
to  some,  the  budding  rod  of  Aaron  (Numbers  17:8), 
with  the  legend  (Holy  Jerusalem)  in  Hebrew  characters. 
The  succeeding  princes  of  the  Maccabaean  or  Asmon- 
aean  family  down  to  B.  C.  37,  struck  only  small  bronze 
coins  with  Hebrew  or  bilingual  (Hebrew  and  Greek) 
characters. 

The  Idumaean  or  Herodian  princes,  B.  C.  37  to  A.  D. 
100,  Herod  the  Great  and  his  successors,  also  coined 
bronze  money  bearing  their  names  in  the  Greek  char- 
acter. The  bronze  coin  of  Herod  Agrippa  T,  A.  D. 
37-44,  has  on  the  obverse  the '  inscription  (King 
Agrippa)  around  an  umbrella,  and  on  the  reverse  the 
date,  L.  S.  (year  6)  and  three  ears  of  corn. 


OLDER   MONEY,   COINS,   ETC.  139 

The  large  bronze  coin  of  Agrippa  2nd,  A.  D.  48-100, 
bears  on  the  obverse  the  head  of  the  Emperor  Vespa- 
sian, and  on  the  reverse  the  standing  figure  of  Fortune 
holding  a  Cornucopia.  Meantime  the  Roman  Procu- 
rators of  Judea,  who  from  B.  C.  6  governed  the  country 
during  the  almost  nominal  reigns  of  the  later  Idumaean 
kings,  also  struck  bronze  coins  with  Greek  inscriptions. 

These  do  not  bear  the  names  of  the  Greek  procu- 
rators, but  only  those  of  the  emperors  and  the  years  of 
their  reigns.  Those  of  Tiberius  with  the  date  18  were 
struck  in  the  year  of  the  crucifixion.  The  silver  coins 
current  throughout  this  period  were  Greek  tetradrachms 
of  Antioch,  etc.,  and  Roman  denarii.  The  denarius  of 
Tiberius  weighed  Oo  grains  (with  silver  worth  60  cents 
per  ounce  would  be  worth  now  in  the  United  States 
J  of  60  cents  or  7^  cents). 

The  denarius,  A.  V.  ''penny,"  was  the  usual  day 
wages  of  the  field  laborer.  The  thirty  pieces  of  silver, 
the  price  of  Christ's  betrayal,  were  probably  not  denarii 
but  tetradrachms. 

The  following  are  the  principal  coins  current  in  Pales- 
tine, during  New  Testament  times. 

Silver. 

Stater,  A.  V.  "piece  of  money."  Matt.  17:27.  A  tet- 
radrachm  of  Antioch,  weight  236  to  220  grains,  equiv- 
alent or  about  that  of  a  Jewish  shekel,  but  officially  tar- 
iffed at  3  Roman  denarii,  or  §  of  a  troy  ounce,  reckoned 
as  pure  silver,  but  of  course  there  must  have  been  alloy. 
The  piece  would  be  somewhat  larger  than  an  American 
half  dollar.  Argurion,  A.  V.  "piece  of  money,"  Matt. 
26:15,  was  another  name  for  the  same  coins. 

Didrachmon,  A.  V.  "tribute  money,"  Matt.  17-24,  2 


140  VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE   OF    VALUE. 

drachms  of  Antioch,  about  112  grains,  equivalent  to  a 
Jewish  half  shekel.  Drachma,  A.  V.  "piece  of  silver," 
Luke  15:8,  a  drachm  of  Antioch  equivalent  to  a  Roman 
denarius  (this  does  not  quite  harmonize  with  a  former 
statement  of  3  Roman  denarii  to  the  tetradrachm  of 
Antioch).  Denarius  or  denarion,  A.  V.  "penny," 
Matt.  18:28,  etc.,  the  Roman  imperial  denarius  of  60 
grains  troy. 

Bronze. 

Assarion,  A.  V.  "farthing,"  Matt.  10:29,  the  Roman 
As  or  i- 1 6  of  a  denarius. 

Kodrantes,  A.  V.  "farthing,"  Matt.  5:26,  1-4  of  an 
Assarion. 

Lepton,  A.  V.  "mite,"  Mark  12:42,  the  smallest 
Jewish  bronze  coin,  equivalent  to  half  the  kodrantes  or 
1-4  farthing.  (A.  V.  stands  for  "Authorized  Version.") 

During  the  revolt  of  the  Jews,  A.  D.  66-70,  the  issue 
of  Jewish  silver  was  revived  and  shekels  and  1-4  shekels 
of  silver  were  once  more  struck  in  the  names  of  Eleazer 
and  Simon. 

On  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem,  A.  D.  70,  the  Roman 
emperors  Vespasian  and  Titus  struck  coins  in  Rome 
and  Judea  bearing  the  inscription,  Judaea  Capta,  Ju- 
daea Devicta,  and  in  Greek  letters  (Judaea  conquered). 
Once  more  during  the  second  revolt  under  Simon 
Barcochab,  A.  D.  132-135,  the  Jews  struck  native 
shekels  and  1-4  shekels  bearing  the  Hebrew  inscription 
(The  deliverance  of  Israel).  The  series  of  the  coins 
of  Jerusalem  closes  with  those  of  the  Roman  Aelia  Cap- 
itolina  after  the  rebuilding  of  the  city  by  Hadrian, 
A.  D.  136,  when  the  new  temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus 
replaced  that  of  Jehovah. 


OLDER   MONEY,    COINS,   ETC.  141 

Though  there  is  uncertainty  about  some  of  the 
weights  given  above  yet  they  throw  light  on  a  few  im- 
portant passages.  Thus  Joseph  was  sold  by  his 
brethren  for  20  pieces  of  silver,  presumably  shekels,  and 
therefore  4,480  grains,  or  18-27  of  an  avoirdupois 
pound,  or  9  1-3  troy  ounces. 

Naaman's  oiler  to  Elisha,  2  Kings,  chapter  5,  of  6,000 
pieces  (shekels)  of  gold  was  equivalent  to  something 
like  (shekel  gold  253  grains)  1,518,000  grains,  or  3,162 
troy  ounces.  A  troy  ounce  of  pure  gold  is  worth 
$20.67;  counted  at  $20  per  ounce,  would  be  $63,250,  or 
if  the  shekel  of  224  grains  were  used,  would  be  $56,000. 
The  temple  tax  at  Jerusalem,  Matt.  17:24,  was  a  di- 
drachm  of  silver  or  T  12  grains,  a  little  less  than  a  fourth 
of  a  troy  ounce.  Our  Lord  told  St.  Peter  that  in  the 
fish's  mouth  he  would  find  a  stater,.  Matt.  17:27,  a  tet- 
radrachm  or  stater  equal  to  a  Jewish  shekel,  224  grains 
or  7-15  of  a  troy  ounce  of  silver,  a  coin  something 
larger  than  a  silver  half  dollar  piece,  which  would  pay 
for  the  apostle  and  his  Master. 

The  debtor  who  had  been  forgiven  ten  thousand 
talents  or  about  1,450,000  ounces  troy  of  silver  refused 
to  forgive  his  fellow-servant  6,000  grains  or  12 J  ounces 
troy. 

The  householder,  in  the  parable,  is  represented  as 
hiring  laborers  for  his  vineyard  at  a  penny  a  day,  or 
60  grains  or  1-8  of  an  ounce  of  silver.  Judas  sold 
Christ  for  30  pieces  of  silver,  argurions  or  tetradrachms, 
Matt.  26:15,  equivalent  to  30  shekels  or  14  ounces  troy, 
or  8-9  of  a  pound  avoirdupois,  being  6,720  grains;  if 
we  give  the  weight  of  3  denarii  or  180  grains  to  this 
"piece"  it  will  be  5,400  grains  or  n  1-4  troy  ounces 


142  VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

or  27-35  °f  a  pound  avoirdupois.  Fourteen  ounces 
troy  of  silver  at  the  present  price,  about  60  cents  U.  S. 
gold  per  ounce,  is  worth  now  about  $8.40. 

In  Joshua,  1451  B.  C.,  Achan  covets  a  goodly 
Babylonish  garment.  "And  when  I  saw  among  the 
spoils  a  goodly  Babylonish  garment  and  200  shekels  of 
silver  and  a  wedge  of  gold  of  50  shekels  weight,  then 
I  coveted  them  and  took  them  and,  behold,  they  are 
hid  in  the  earth  in  the  midst  of  my  tent  and  the  silver 
under  it." 

Babylon,  a  city  of  merchants,  Ezekiel  17:4,  B.  C. 
594.  Nineveh,  with  numerous  merchants,  Nahum 
3:16,  B.  C.  713. 

Chaldeans,  and  the  ships  of,  Isaiah  43:14,  B.  C.  712. 
Commerce  of  Tyre,  Ezekiel,  chapter  27,  especially  in- 
teresting and  particularly  worthy  of  perusal  on  account 
of  the  very  large  list  of  articles  of  merchandise,  and 
description  of  the  wonderfully  large  and  varied  trade 
of  a  great  maritime  city  of  2,500  years  ago. 


CHAPTER  XIL 
Bimetallism. 

"Bimetallism  may  be  defined  as  the  free  coinage  of 
both  gold  and  silver  at  the  relative  value  set  by  legisla- 
tive enactment,  or  as  the  union  of  these  two  metals  as 
full  money,  at  a  fixed  rate  and  specifically  as  that  system 
of  coinage  which  recognizes  both  coins  of  silver  and 
coins  of  gold  as  legal  tender  to  any  amount,  or  the  free 
coinage  and  concurrent  use  of  the  two  metals  as  a  cir- 
culating medium  at  a  fixed  felative  value."  (Ency- 
clopedia of  Social  Reform,  by  D.  P.  Bliss.) 

The  final  report  of  the  English  Royal  Commission 
on  gold  and  silver,  reporting  in  1888,  described  bimet- 
allism as  follows: — 

"A  bimetallic  system  of  currency  must,  in  view  of 
those  who  advocate  it,  include  two  essential  features: 
(a)  an  open  mint,  ready  to  coin  any  quantity  of  gold  or 
silver  which  may  be  brought  to  it;  (b)  the  right,  on  the 
part  of  the  debtor,  to  discharge  his  liabilities  at  his  op- 
tion in  either  of  the  two  metals  at  a  rate  fixed  by  law." 

For  my  part,  it  seems  that  if  "bimetallism"  is  a  good 
thing,  why  not  trimetallism  or  quadrimetallism  or  poly- 
metallism.  If  it  is  a  good  thing  for  government  to  try 
to  fix  the  ratio  or  price  between  two  commodities  on 
account  of  an  attempt  at  "stability,"  why  not  between 
many?  By  the  same  reasoning  it  would  be  a  good 

(143) 


144  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

thing  if  all  prices  were  frozen  at  one  market  report 
and  should  stand  like  so  many  mummies  awaiting 
the  general  awakening,  or  that  the  government  set 
about  to  ''regulate  commerce"  to  a  set  of  unchangeable 
or  set  prices,  something  it  could  not  do  if  it  would, 
nor  is  it  so  insensate  as  to  try,  nor  is  there  any  sensible 
or  truly  logical  reason  why  this  rule  should  be  changed 
with  reference  to  gold  and  silver  only. 

The  bimetallists  of  the  U.  S.  have  been  accused  of 
dishonesty  by  their  opponents  (and  to  my  mind  with 
reason)  inasmuch  as  they  would  make  the  practise  of 
their  theory  retroactive,  and  debts  contracted  in  dollars 
since  1873  (which  are  gold  dollars)  they  would  pay 
with  silver,  worth  half  as  much.  The  bimetallists  con- 
tend that  the  law  of  1873  increased  tremendously,  they 
say  "doubled"  (but  in  reality  it  was  infinitely  more)  the 
burden  of  indebtedness,  which  is  undoubtedly  true,  but 
this  law  if  unjust  was  at  least  accepted  without  legal 
protest,  from  the  legal  tender  Supreme  Court  of  the 
U.  S.  That  pompous  aggregation  of  dignity,  which 
has  degenerated,  as  many  of  us  believe,  into  a  bulwark 
of  monopolism,  a  high  court  of  Mammon,  having,  as 
many  of  us  also  believe,  no  care  for  workingmen  or  the 
rights  of  Labor  or  the  rights  of  Man,  did  not  discover 
that  it  was  prima  facie  an  open  indubitable  and  palpable 
violation  of  the  intent  of  the  clause  regarding  the  "obli- 
gation of  contracts,"  and  therefore  utterly  and  instantly 
unconstitutional,  being  a  scheme  to  plunder  the  public 
for  the  benefit  of  usurers,  opposed  to  public  policy 
and  to  public  morals,  and  if  this  is  not  enough,  it  was 
also  a  high-handed  violation  of  the  ex  post  facto  clause; 
and  all  this  not  to  favor  the  beloved  boys  either  in  blue 


BIMETALLISM.  c 

or  in  gra\r,  the  choice  of  the  land,  whose  warrior  breasts 
were  bared  to  fierce  steel  and  murderous  shot  and  shell, 
and  whose  health  sank  often  even  to  death  under 
.miasma,  exposure,  fever,  and  hardship. 

Nor  was  it  done  for  the  rest  of  the  industrious  peo- 
ple of  the  U.  S.  both  men  and  women,  who  in  anguish, 
without  relaxation,  strained  every  nerve  to  sustain  the 
desperate  conflict  to  the  bitter  end,  and  who  had  set- 
tled down  in  fidelity  and  in  peace  to  repair  the  dreadful 
loss  as  far  as  it  could  be  done  and  to  bridge  the  bloody 
chasm,  but  it  was  done  for  the  vultures  who  gorged 
upon  the  result  of  martial  horror,  for  the  harpies  who 
fed  and  fattened  while  they  defiled. 

In  these  United  States  it  is  by  some  accounted  trea- 
son publicly  to  denounce  this  superb  body  of  men 
whom  we  have  adequately  remunerated,  whom  we  have 
amply  guarded  against  any  sudden  violent  or  mis- 
taken popular  clamor,  whose  health,  calmness,  ease  of 
mind,  and  secular  future,  we  have  zealously  protected, 
whom  we  have  given  easy  access  to  every  procurable 
information  and  supposed  to  be  capable  of  high  dis- 
criminative and  humane  judgment,  whom  we  therefore 
have  set  apart  as  superior  guides,  sitting  in  safety  and 
in  grandeur,  surrounded  by  comfort,  luxury,  and  opu- 
lence, princes  not  only  of  American  but  of  mundane 
society. 

Have  wre  not  a  right  to  complain  of  these  men  who 
were  in  large  measure  responsible  for  so  much  unnec- 
essary perspiration,  fatigue,  backache,  heartache,  lost 
time,  and  hopeless  endeavor;  and  whose  duty  it  is  to 
forestall  any  serious  legal  assault  upon  public  right? 

Regretfully  we  say  that  they  have  broken  the  divin- 


10 


146  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

ity  that  hedges  in  meritorious  majesty,  and  they  have 
torn  our  ideal  from  its  high  place,  for  in  our  ignorance 
we  had  believed  and  hoped  that  this  exalted  tribunal 
was  beyond  doubt  or  censure. 

In  our  trustfulness  we  placed  them  upon  the  outer 
wall,  and  they  have,  without  outcry  (perhaps  unwit- 
tingly, but  they  are  supposed  to  be  wise),  allowed  us 
to  be  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  of  man- 
kind, and  have  helped,  if  not  in  the  forging  of  our 
chains,  at  least  in  the  riveting  of  our  shackles.  The 
popular  cry  that  this  holy  big  medicine  band  is  under 
grand  taboo  and  should  not  be  criticized,  is  what  our 
English  friends  would  call  the  merest  "rot."  You 
will  find  in  attacks  upon  wrong  and  monopoly,  that 
reason  is  called  treason  by  the  Pharisees  of  government. 

We  have  shown  that  "the  finest''  and  "the  only"  will 
bear  watching,  and  that  we  can  not  sleep  in  the  idea 
that  we  are  a  "free  people"  or  that  this  monopoly- 
ridden  republic  is  a  "free  country,"  or  can  be  kept  so  by 
any  such  instrument  as  an  unscrutinized  Supreme 
Court,  which,  as  we  have  shown,  may  be  most  lament- 
ably maculate  and  fallible,  indeed  eternal  vigilance  is 
the  price  of  progress,  and  our  lamps  must  be  kept  burn- 
ing, that  we  do  not  sink  like  Egypt  and  Rome  under 
the  weakness  of  precedent  or  the  weight  of  special  priv- 
ilege and  debt. 

To  my  mind,  highway  robbery  is  far  less  a  crime 
than  "confidence"  working,  and  I  think  it  would  be 
better  to  advocate  plain,  simple,  easily  understood,  gen- 
eral repudiation,  than  to  advocate  retroactive  bimetal- 
lism, -for  it  is  far  better  for  the  human  race  that  the 
Labor  of  the  world  should  at  once  repudiate  all  the 


BIMETALLISM.  147 

debts  of  the  world  than  that  mankind  should  sink  under 
the  burden  of  indebtedness,  and  it  is  direct  and  far  easier 
than  claiming  equity  of  a  conspiracy  (the  gold  trust) 
that  does  not  know  the  word. 

The  bimetallists  in  their  arguments  have  the  advan- 
tage over  the  monometallists  of  a  humane  spirit,  and 
also  that  they  recognize  that  a  great  wrong  has  been 
done  and  is  being  done  to  the  country  and  to  the  world 
by  the  gold  standard. 

They  have  the  disadvantage  of  claiming  as  facts 
certain  things  that  are  illogical  or  unreasonable. 

Among  these  are  that  we  could  have  a  double  stand- 
ard at  any  one  time,  or  that  there  can,  in  fact,  be  any 
such  thing  as  a  continuous  double  standard  or  two 
standards,  the  very  word  shnuhu-d  precludes  the  idea. 
(Under  the  system  that  we  have  proposed,  however,  it 
would  be  possible  to  have  a  gold  standard  or  gold 
money  unit  in  one  part  of  the  country  and  a  silver  one 
in  another,  for  the  government  would  take  no  respon- 
sibility in  regard  to  the  ratio  or  price.) 

Under  what  is  called  "bimetallism,"  the  cheaper 
quantity  of  metal  \\ill  certainly  be  used  as  the  money 
unit,  so  it  is  really  monometallism  of  the  cheaper  alter- 
native or  cheaper  quantity  of  metal,  and  is  practically 
what  it  has  been  called,  viz.,  an  alternative  standard. 
It  is  a  two-option  standard,  or  the  standard  of  the 
cheaper  alternative.  Men  trading  and  making  ac- 
counts will  certainly  do  business  in  the  money  in  which 
balances  will  be  paid,  and  they  will  keep  on  the'safe 
side  and  take  the  cheaper.  If  it  takes  less  than  16 
ounces  of  silver  to  buy  an  ounce  of  gold,  then  gold  is  the 
money;  if  it  takes  more,  then  silver  will  be  the  money. 


148  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

Men  owing  debts  will  certainly  use  the  cheaper  quan- 
tity of  metal,  and  men  have  been  protected  by  govern- 
ment in  swindling,  in  fact,  in  the  early  stages  of  the 
war,  just  after  the  legal  tender  law  was  passed,  men 
who  had  deposited  gold  in  banks  and  otherwise  were 
forced  to  take  depreciated  paper,  dollar  for  dollar. 
Men  have  been  swindled  out  of  hundreds  and  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  dollars  by  tricky  banks  and  in- 
dividuals assisted  by  that  great  patron  of  thieves,  the 
United  States  Government,  at  least  when  it  is  igno- 
rantly  or  criminally  administered. 

From  1792  to  1834,  we  had  a  silver  standard  in  the 
United  States.  From  1834  (the  date  of  the  first  change 
in  the  ratio)  to  1873,  we  had  the  gold  standard,  accord- 
ing to  that  clumsy  "law"  of  Gresham,  which  gold 
monometallists  so  delight  to  mouthe,  the  "bad  money" 
(gold)  "drove  out"  the  "good  money"  (silver),  or  com- 
modities hunt  the  best  market,  or  trade  seeks  its  level. 

if  we  had  16  to  i  bimetallism  in  this  country,  we 
would  go  instantly  to  a  silver  basis,  which,  were  this  not 
retroactive  as  regards  the  payment  of  gold  or  dollar 
of  '73  obligations,  would  be  a  consummation  devotedly 
to  be  desired.  It  is  to  my  mind  an  unfortunate  fact 
that  the  "silver"  or  anti-gold  men  of  the  United  States 
did  not  take  up  this  stand  from  the  beginning.  Silver 
advocates  most  unfortunately  frequently  deny  that  gold 
would  be  taken  off  the  market  at  16  to  i,  or  that  gold 
dollars  could  not  be  gotten  at  that  price.  Gold  cer- 
tainly would  be  taken  oft"  the  market  at  that  price  as 
more  can  be  gotten  for  it  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 
The  monetization  of  silver  would  enhance  its  price  as 
compared  to  gold  and  have  a  tendency  to  bring  them 
nearer  in  price. 


BIMETALLISM.  149 

Gold  would  not  be  "driven  from  the  country"  as  gold 
men  assert,  for  it  can  always  be  bought  at  some  ratio, 
as  it  always,  has  been  and  always  will  be,  which  will  be 
the  market  ratio. 

It  is  not  so  holy  that  it  can  not  be  bought.  It  is 
bought  now,  always  has  been,  and  always  will  be,  and, 
like  any  'other  commodity,  its  owner  will  sell  it  in  the 
best  market.  Of  course,  the  demand  for  it  in  the 
United  States  would  weaken  as  it  would  not  be  used  for 
the  great  use  of  hiring  labor,  and  some  of  it  would  go 
somewhere  else  to  cause  good  times  by  throwing  gold 
galore  on  the  market,  which  would  be  a  great  thing, 
and  continue  were  it  not  caught  up  with  again  by  the 
making  of  new  indebtedness.  So,  after  all,  the  great 
enemy  of  the  working  world  is  the  debt  system,  or  col- 
lection and  mortgage  laws. 

The  so-called  ratio  of  16  to  i  has  never  existed  in 
the  United  States.  The  ratio  between  the  weight  of 
the  token  silver  dollar  and- the  true  dollar  of  the  United 
States  is  exactly  15  85-86  to  i,  or  about  15,988  to  i. 
Divide  412.5  by  25.8  or  3/1.25  by  23.22. 

The  relative  cheapness  of  mining  is  a  matter  really 
of  no  moment  in  true  monetary  argument.  In  this  re- 
gard, however,  larger  values  of  gold  have  probably 
been  extracted  by  smaller  outlays  than  has  ever  been 
the  case  with  silver. 

The  value  placed  by  silver  men  upon  silver,  viz., 
$1.29  gold  per  ounce,  is  because  i  ounce  troy  of  480 
grains  of  silver  is  used  in  making  one  silver  dollar  and 
29-99  of  a  dollar,  which  would  be  $1.29  nearly.  Di- 
vide 480  by  371.25,  the  number  of  pure  grains  of  silver 
in  a  silver  dollar. 


150  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

Nothing  was  ever  heard  of  the  contention  for  this 
price  from  silver  mine  owners  until  some  little  time 
after  the  cataclysm  of  1873,  for  the  silver  owners  had 
been  disposing  of  their  silver  principally  in  the  Chinese 
market  at  a  better  price  than  $1.29  gold  per  ounce, 
and  at  that  time  there  was  no  demand  for  $1.29  gold 
per  silver  ounce,  made  on  the  American  Government 
by  patriotic  American  owners  of  silver. 

Silver  men  say  that  silver  was  "struck  down"  by  de- 
monetization but  the  truth  is  much  worse.  Industry 
received  a  dreadful  and  murderous  stab,  which  will  be 
fatal  unless  she  changes  her  mode  of  treatment,  dis- 
charges her  gold  physicians,  abandons  the  gold  stand- 
ard, and  pays  up  her  debts,  principal  and  interest,  to 
the  uttermost  farthing.  This  interest  represents  a  tax- 
ation of  the  world  to  the  detriment  •  of  the  welfare  of 
"hiankind,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  "money  power,"  and 
is  'protected  by  every  bulwark  of  law  that  Cunning  and 
Greed  could  possibly  devise,  many  sorts  of  civil  court 
and  multitudinous  processes  and  methods,  all  at  the 
public  expense  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  industry  of 
usury,  and  no  polftical  economist  in  any  chair  in  any 
great  college  in  the  United  States  or  in  the  world  dare 
attack  the  system,  for  he  would  lose  his  place  almost 
instantly.  In  the  United  States  they  are  ''churched" 
and  "fired"  for  much  smaller  sacrilege. 


CHAPTER  XIIL 
Gold  Monometallism. 

'This  view  teaches  that,  at  least  in  the  present  stage 
of  civilization,  the  only  money  that  should  be  used  as 
primary  money,  and,  therefore,  as  the  standard  value, 
should  be  gold.  Other  metals,  like  silver,  copper,  etc., 
may  be  advantageously  used  for  subsidiary  coinage,  and 
various  forms  of  credit  money,  bank  notes,  letters  of 
credit,  private  notes,  clearing  house  notes,  etc.,  may  be 
used  in  the  large  account  of  transaction  as  they  are 
used  to-day." 

"Gold  monometallism,  says  its  supporters,  is  the  nat- 
ural mature  product  of  advancing  civilization.  The 
gold  conspiracy  of  which  so  many  silver  adv6cates 
make  so  much  simply  does  not  exist,  and  never  has  been 
proven,  however  strongly  asserted,  because  it  never 
has  existed.  Each  nation  has  come  to  the  gold  stand- 
ard simply  because  it  found  it  to  its  interest  to  do  so. 

''The  crime  01  1873,  of  which  one  hears  so  much, 
never  really  took  place;  silver  had  not  been  coined  in 
the  United  States  to  any  appreciable  extent  for  40  years 
before  1873  [that  is,  he  means  full  weight  silver  dollars 
G.  R.].  It  was,  in  1873,  worth  more  as  bullion  than  as 
money,  so  nobody  desired  it  coined. 

"The  act  of  1873  simply  legalized  demonetization, 
which  had  virtually  been  a  fact  for  40  years,  nor  was  it 

(151) 


152  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

done  surreptitiously  or  without  knowledge.  The  meas- 
ure was  recommended  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
in  three  successive  messages,  the  bill  was  printed  13 
times,  considered  through  5  sessions  of  Congress,  and 
the  debate  concerning  it  occupies  140  pages  of  the  Con- 
gressional Record. 

"Most  of  the  present  prominent  silver  men  who  were 
in  Congress  at  that  time,  like  Senator  Jones,  voted  for 
it.  'The  crime  of  1873'  exists,  therefore,  only  in  the 
heated  imagination  of  the,  perhaps  well-meaning,  but 
mistaken  opponents  of  sound  currency.  So  with  Ger- 
many's demonetization  of  silver,  which  was  commenced 
in  1871  and  completed  in  1873.'' 

The  above,  copied  from  the  ''Encyclopedia  of  Social 
Reform,'''  by  D.  P.  Bliss,  a  very  excellent  work,  is,  we 
think,  a  fair  expose  of  the  gold  standardist  position. 

If  gold  monometallism  "is  the  natural  mature  product 
of  advancing  civilization,"  why  does  it  need  strong  law 
and  active  governmental  interference  to  sustain  it? 
If  this  assertion  were  true,  gold  would  be  the  money 
of  any  country  by 'natural  commercial  law.  If  a  fair 
chance  were  given  to  silver  in  the  race  or  competition 
as  to  which  of  the  two  would  be  adopted  as  the  money 
of  any  country,  in  our  opinion  gold  would  not  stand 
the  ghost  of  a  show.  We  never  heard  of  a  gold  mono- 
metallist  proposing  a  fair  field  and  no  favor.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  government  has  no  more  need  of  a  protected 
money  than  she  has  of  a  protected  creed  or  protected 
church,  or  of  a  science  bolstered  by  bayonets. 

If  government  coins  one  metal  free  of  charge,  she 
should  do  so  for  any  metal,  for  in  justice  no  distinctive 
privilege  should  attach  to  gold,  nor  is  there  any  reason 


GOLD   MONOMETALLISM.  153 

in  right  or  justice  why  government  should  command 
that  a  certain  metal  shall  be  used  as  money  through- 
out its  borders  in  exclusion  of  all  others.  This  arbi- 
trariness is  no  advance  of  civilization  nor  progress,  jt 
is  despotism  and  a  relic  of  ancient  barbarism.  It  shows 
not  how  well  we  are  governed,  but  how  rigidly  and  un- 
justly we  guard  the  interests  of  debt-owners  at  the  pub- 
lic expense.  As  to  the  gold  conspiracy  which  it  is 
said  does  not  exist,  there -is  at  least  good  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  it  does  exist  in  order  to  protect  its  immense 
holdings.  It  looks  to  an  outsider  as  if  there  were  a 
Bondholderbumi,  ?nd  as  though  it  were  particularly 
active  about  the  7o's  in  the  matter  of  demonetization, 
but  this  is  not  relevant  to  the  merit  of  argument.  (It 
is  not  so  many  years  before  when  there  was  talk  of 
demonetizing  gold  because  it  was  getting  cheap  as 
reckoned  in  human  blood,  but  that  project  dropped 
with  the  later  larger  discoveries  of  silver.) 

However,  we  do  riot  believe  that  this  post-mortem 
so  long  after  the  murder  of  1873  is  conducive  to  any 
benefit,  for  what  people  want  now  is  to  know  how  to 
get  out  of  the  trouble  that  was  left  as  a  legacy. 

As  to  the  assertion,  "Each  nation  came  to  the  gold 
standard  because  it  found  it  to  its  interest  to  do  so,"  we 
defy  any  gold  metallist  to  give  any  good  reason  why 
any  nation  should  come  to  the  gold  standard  or  should 
continue  in  it. 

If  it  is  to  the  interest  of  any  nation  to  increase  the 
burdens  bearing  upon  the  industrious  population  that 
sustains  it,  in  order  to  pamper  the  bondholding  and 
money-lending  class,  then  the  assertion  is  true. 

That  the  silver  dollar  (full  dollar)  in  1873  and  before, 


154  VALICS;    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

was  worth  more  to  its  holder  as  bullion  (or  at  its  true 
market  price)  than  the  gold  dollar,  is  true,  and  thereby 
we  were  upon  a  gold  "basis"  with  light-weight  subsid- 
iary silver  coins,  half  dollars,  quarter  dollars,  etc.  (as  no 
light  weight  full  dollar  pieces  were  ever  coined).  The 
next  assertion,  however,  is  a  most  treacherous  one,  and 
it  is  a  pity  that  college  professors  should  have  lent 
themselves  to  this  underhanded  pettifoggery  in  argu- 
ment, viz.,  "'The  act  of  1873  simply  legalized  demon- 
etization, which  had  virtually  been  a  fact  for  40  years." 
Every  one  knows,  especially  every  gold  monometallist, 
that  under  the  system  known  as  bimetallism,  the 
cheaper  alternative  will  be  the  money,  which  for  the 
40  years  spoken  of  was  gold,  but  the  law  still  remained 
in  force,  and  should  silver  get  to  16  to  i,  or  slightly 
more,  then  silver  would  be  the  money  and  the  gold 
standard  in  the  United  States  would  be  dropped  (but 
not  bimetallism),  and  the  silver  dollar  of  1837  of  412.5 
grains  of  United  States  silver  would  become  the  money 
unit  of  the  United  States,  and  its  value  the  unit  of 
value,  and  it  would  have  been  "sound  money"  or 
"honest  money." 

Silver  was  being  produced  in  accelerated  quantities, 
and  possibly  on  this  account,  as  probably  on  account  of 
the  (we  believe  there  was  a  secret  conspiracy)  demon- 
etization move  made  against  it,  the  relative  value  of 
silver  was  lessening,  or  the  price  of  silver  was  falling. 
In  1872,  the  ratio  was  .15.63,  and  in  1873,  at  15.93;  '74> 
16.17;  '75>  16.59.  (See  table  of  ratios.) 

It  is  often  said  that  we  had  a  "paper 'money"  or  that  we 
were  on  a  "paper  basis,"  during  the  war  and  for  some 
years  after,  which  is  untrue  and  misleading. 


GOLD   MONOMETALLISM.  155 

VVe  were  on  a  gold  basis  always,  but  our  dollar  or 
money  unit  was  constantly  changing.  Greenbacks  at 
60  cents  on  the  dollar,  meant  that  the  dollar  was  60 
cents  gold,  instead  of  100  cents.  As  it  would  be  almost 
treason  to  say  this,  we  got  around  it  by  saying  that  the 
price  of  gold  had  risen,,  or  that  gold  was  at  a  "pre- 
mium;" for  instance,  when  greenbacks  are  at  60  cents 
or  the  dollar  was  60  cents  (based  on  what  you  could 
get  in  the  market,  for  the  government  promise  to 
pay  a  dollar)  then  gold  was  at  1.66  2-3  cents,  or  gold 
said  to  be  at  66  2-3  per  cent  premium  and  currency  at 
40  per  cent  discount,  meaning  that  60  cents  was  the 
price  of  a  greenback  dollar  and  1.66  2-3  cents  was  the 
price  of  a  gold  dollar  in  greenbacks,  but  it  was  more 
customary  to  say  that  gold,  was  at  a  "premium;"  it 
seemed  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  government 
paper. 

\'o\v,  under  these  circumstances  (be  it  remem- 
bered that  these  things  were  not  obvious  to  the 
great  public  until  then,  at  least,  unaccustomed  to 
looking  into  the  mone\  question),  because  the  "cur- 
rency" of  the  country  \yas  almost  altogether  paper. 
Congress,  under  the  initiative  of  John  Sherman,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  passed  the  demonetization  act 
in  1873.  A  more  colossal  piece  of  suicidal  or  mal- 
economic  legislation  was  probably  never  perpetrated 
since  the  world  began.  By  it,  the  option  which  the 
government  most  honestly  had  and  under  which  all  the 
heavy  indebtedness  of  the  Civil  War  was  most  no- 
toriously contracted,  was  most  ruthlessly  cut  off,  and 
the  opportunity  which  we  had  of  paying  the  debt  with 
the  silver  mines  of  the  west  and  of  our  sister  republics, 


156  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

was  most  shamelessly  and  causelessly  jtprn  from  us. 
To  think  that  such  a  stupendous  piece  of  stupidity  (to 
say  the  least)  could  be  committed  by  the  high  body 
who  have  our  country's  interest  in  charge  is  appalling. 

It  was  as  if  a  splendid  stream  of  water  (and  one  to 
which  we  had  a  perfect  right,  and  for  which  an  appro- 
priate ditch  was  already  dug)  many  times  larger  than 
the  one  being  used,  was  about  to  reach  the  slow- 
moving  government  wheel,  when  it  was  cut  off,  di- 
verted and  turned  to  waste.  The  worst  of  it  is  that  it 
was  done  by  our  high-paid  and  much-honored  confi- 
dential agents.  That  nearly  every  man  connected  with 
the  affair  pleads  ignorance,  only  shows  "with  how  little 
wisdom  the  world  is  governed." 

The  ignorance  is  patent  to  any  one  who  will  read  all 
the  proceedings  in  the  momentous  affair,  and  shows 
how  little  the  average  Congressman  of  1873  knew 
about  vital  national  questions. 

They  usually  iurnish  the  occasion  for  clap-trap  as- 
severations of  patriotism  and  a  color  scheme  display  of 
"red,  white,  and  blue  oratory,"  a  meretricious  tribute 
to  Buncombe  for  the  solid  honors  and  emoluments 
conferred  by  its  vote  and  its  labor.  But  if  Buncombe 
likes  it,  who  shall  complain,  for  this  is  a  government  of 
the  people  by  politicians  for  monopolists.  However, 
things  have  changed  somewhat  for  the  better  since 
1873,  for  the  average  congressman  now  knows  that 
the  money  question  is  important  and  really  affects  the 
industrial  interests  or  the  prosperity  of  the  country. 

If,  as  it  is  asserted,  John  Sherman  knew  the  harm  that 
would  ensue,  and  was  bought  by  a  conspiracy  to  de- 
monetize silver,  it  was  a  dreadful  piece  of  treachery, 


GOLD   MONOMETALLISM.  157 

and  were  there  such  a  thing  as  an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a 
tooth  for  a  tooth,  the  flames  of  hell  around  his  black 
soul  could  hardly  pile  high  enough,  heat  hot  enough,  or 
burn  long  enough  for  retribution.  But  we  hardly  be- 
lieve all  this.  John  Sherman  must  have  been  imbued 
with  the  ideas  of  English  financiers  (then  considered 
the  best  in  the  world),  and  English  as  well  as  conti- 
nental political  economists.  Nearly  all  of  these  wor- 
thies, and  especially  the  prominent  ones,  would  preach 
to  him  the  beauties  of  gold  monometallism,  and 
in  his  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  the  United  States, 
wherever  he  went  to  study  the  money  question,  which 
no  doubt  he  did,  he  would  be  led  by  blind  guides,  and 
it  is  no  wonder  that  the  monetary  affairs  of  the  United 
States  went  tumbling  into  the  ditch.  "And  now 
brethren,  I  wot  that  through  ignorance  ye  did  it,  as 
did  also  your  rulers." 

Most  of  the  members  of  Congress  of  18/3  did  not 
know  enough  about  the  act  to  know  what  it  meant 
(demonetization  of  silver),  and  if  they  had  known, 
would  not  know  that  it  seriously  affected  the  welfare 
of  the  country,  as  this  phase  has  been  publicly  brought 
out  since  that  time.  All  of  Sherman's  cotemporaries, 
who  abuse  John  Sherman  so  bitterly  for  what  hap- 
pened, knew  nothing  about  it  in  1873  (so  far  as  we 
know),  and  could  not  predict,  did  not  predict  at  that 
time,  and  the  worst  of  it  is,  have  built  their  attack  and 
their  arguments  upon  the  structural  logical  weakness 
of  the  "bimetallism"  or  "16  to  i"  of  American  politics. 

Gold  monometallism  is  a  top-heavy  idol  with  feet  of 
clay,  one  of  which  rests  on  the  fraud  of  the  theory  of 
the  "standard  01  deferred  payments,"  and  the  other  on 


158  ITALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

the  fallacies  and  mistakes  of  the  "bimetallists"  of  the 
United  States. 

There  is  another  practical  objection  to  gold,  inas- 
much as  silver  has  to  be  used  in  immense  quantities  for 
tokens  to  circulate  it,  which  silver  may  be  counterfeited 
beyond  the  possibility  of  detection,  which  has  been 
done,  and  probably  is  constantly  being  done  in  the 
United  States,  which  tokens  must  be  redeemed  by  the 
labor  of  the  United  States. 

It  may  be  seen  that  the  gold  debt  trust  reaches 
across  the  world;  so  also  do  some  other  trusts;  so  also 
does  the  science  of  value,  for  it  is  not  confined  by  the 
boundary  line  of  any  country,  it  is  also  clear  that  we 
do  not  need  a  gold  money — we  can  use  some  other 
money  quite  as  well,  and  with  vastly  more  economy, 
that  is,  economy  to  the  industry  of  the  nation  or  true 
public  or  political  economy. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
Debts. 

In  1896,  the  national  indebtedness  of  the  principal 
countries  of  the  world  amounted  to  over  $31,000,000,- 
ooo.oo,  to  wit: — 

1'rance,        11,228  millions  dr.  Britain,  3,138  millions 
Italy,  2,498  A.  Hungary,  2,940      " 

Spain,  1,715  Russia,  2,430 

Germany,         415       "  Turkey,  826 

India,  607       "          Brazil,  587 

Netherlands,    431  Egypt.  47° 

Portugal,          617      "          Mexico,  no      " 

Australia,       1,044       "  Canada,  299      " 

Belgium,          442  U.  S.,  1,500      " 

The  debt  of  France  is  augmented  by  the  fact  that 
many  things  are  charged  there  that  would  not  be  in- 
cluded in  "national  indebtedness"  by  other  countries, 
like  our  state  and  county  debts,  etc. 

Also  many  countries  own  ''offsets,"  if  they  may  be 
so  called,  in  the  shape  of  lines  of  railroad,  etc.,  which  is 
not  the  case  in  the  U.  S.  and  some  other  countries. 

The  sum  total  of  this  indebtedness  would  be  consider- 
ably increased  by  including  the  debts  of  some  other 
countries,  like  Greece,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway, 
China,  Japan,  some  British  possessions,  etc.  This  in- 
debtedness has  considerably  increased  rather  than  di- 
minished since  1896.  Great  Britain  has  had  an  expen- 
sive war  and  so  has  the  U.  S. 

(159) 


160  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

Indeed,  including  our  army  and  navy  and  pension 
list,  we  have  the  heaviest  war  budget  in  the  world. 
Right  now,  July  5,  1900,  we  are  on  the  eve  of  most 
portentous  events,  and  probably  dreadful  war  in  China. 

Immense  as  is  the  sum  of  indebtedness  listed  above, 
it  represents  far  less  than  half  the  truth,  as  it  was  only 
intended  to  call  attention  to  the  enormity  of  the  white 
man's  burden,  for  to  this  should  be  added  the  debts  of 
provinces,  states,  counties,  etc.,  which  have  separate 
systems  of  indebtedness. 

Moreover,  there  is  the  immense  indebtedness  of  in- 
corporations, like  the  debts  of  railroad  lines,  manufac- 
turing works,  etc.,  all  of  which  are  national,  inasmuch 
as  they  rest  on  the  same  back  and  tax  the  same  slave, 
Industry. 

Labor,  having  built  all  the  useful  things  upon  earth, 
now  finds  itself  perpetually  taxed  for  the  privilege  of 
having  put  them  here. 

It  requires  far  more  than  a  billion  dollars  per  annum 
to  pay  the  interest  on  national  debts  alone,  and  this  is 
taken  from  the  people  by  taxation,  another  name  less 
harsh-sounding  for  the  forcible  taking  of  the  wages  of 
an  enslaved  people. 

The  futile  attempt  to  pay  the  interest  on  this  vast 
amount,  is  exhausting  the  energies  of  the  human  race. 
A  discouraging  thing  about  it  is,  that  it  represents 
money  paid  in  the  waste  of  war,  and  effort  that  would 
have  far  more  than  built  every  railroad  and  telegraph 
line  and  canal  in  the  world,  and  the  Nicaragua,  Malac- 
can,  Russian,  and  Floridan  canals  to  boot.  The  debts 
were  usually  made  to  feed  the  flames  of  anger,  the  ap- 
petite for  murder,  and  furnished  the  means  for  whole- 
sale destruction  and  ruin. 

We  are  generally  only  paying  for  the  privilege  our 


DEBTS.  161 

fathers  took  of  indulging  in  human  butchery  and  in 
the  destruction  of  human  happiness. 

However,  these  men  knew  not  what  they  did,  nor 
hardly  why  they  did  it,  and  thousands  of  bold  warriors 
conquered  portions  of  the  earth  by  the  sword,  and  by 
their  valor,  energy,  and  devotion,  have  won  our  regard. 

But  here  we  are  now  face  to  face  with  a  conquest 
made  by  a  few  snivelers  called  ''Money  Kings,"  who 
hold  kingb  and  emperors,  princes,  parliaments,  presi- 
dents, and  courts,  as  a  means  whereby  rent  is  collected 
from  toiling  vassals.  Never  was  conquest  more  com- 
plete, bondage  more  abject,  or  mastery  more  merciless 
and  exacting. 

For  this  debt  the  whole  earth  is  mortgaged,  and 
every  industrious  man,  woman,  and  child  held  in  pawn 
or  peonage,  forever,  lor  under  this  system  it  can  never 
be  paid. 

(Peon,  Spanish,  a  pawn  in  a  game  of  chess,  also  a 
man  held  in  pawn  for  the  debt  he  owes  against  which 
his  labor  is,  ostensibly,  at  least,  applied,  also  simply  a 
laborer  of  the  last,  or  hard- working  and  hopeless  class. 
He  was  originally  a  foot  soldier,  from  pes,  pedes,  afoot, 
and  called  a  peon  to  distinguish  him  from  a  knight  or 
caballero  who  rode  horseback,  from  caballus  and  ca- 
ballo,  a  borse.) 

The  money-lending  partisans,  or  the  bondholder 
swashbucklery,  have  taught  and  led  many  to  believe 
that  a  national  debt  is  a  national  blessing.  It  may  be 
'a  blessing  to  the  lender,  who  thus  makes  vassals  of 
nations,  but  the  debts  of  a  nation  are  only  in  a  greater 
degree  those  of  individuals,  and  are  a  curse  and  a  halter. 

These  greatest  debts  have  usually  been  made  under 
the  pressure  of  war,  and  the  sweat  of  ages  of  peace  is 
required  in  addition  to  the  precious  blood  shed  in  bat- 
ii 


162  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

tie.  The  future  is  mortgaged  by  tyrants  of  the  present 
and  the  past,  and  a  sad  thought  it  is  that  there  seems 
hardly  to  be  a  man  in  high  place  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
who  does  not  assist,  by  his  teaching,  to  bind  these 
"heavy  burdens  grievous  to  be  borne"  upon  the  backs 
of  workingmen,  not  condescending  so  much  as  to  lift 
a  finger  in  their  assistance.  See  Matthew,  chapter  23, 
verse  4,  and  Luke  11,  verse  46,  and  the  rest  of  the  two 
chapters. 

The  people  of  the  earth,  under  present  conditions, 
never  can  pay  these  debts,  and  they  will  remain  until 
they  drag  the  world  into  a  new  edition  of  the  "'dark 
ages,"  or  they  will  be  repudiated  by  revolution,  for  with 
the  spread  of  intelligence  and  the  pressure  upon  popu- 
lations finding  the  struggle  for  existence  more  desper- 
ate, and  the  result  of  labor  more  and  more  unjustly 
distributed,  the.  time  must  come,  slowly  perhaps,  but 
surely,  when  these  demands  can  not  or  will  not  be  sat- 
isfied, and  just  men  with  sternness  will  raise  the  sword, 
demanding  universal  repudiation,  and  the  emancipation 
of  a  world,  or  otherwise  the  system  of  the  gold  standard 
will  be  changed,  and  this  colossal  fabric  of  universal 
thievery  thrown  to  the  ground. 

The  interests  of  many  of  the  advanced  nations  of  the 
world,  have  been  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  dema- 
gogues, who  are  constantly  resorting  to  the  "sale"  of 
bonds,  by  which  the  debt  is  increased,  as  if  in  reality 
there  could  be  any  such  thing  as  a  "sale"  of  bond  paper 
by  the  government;  this  is  euphony,  or  a  method  of 
felicitous  expression,  for  the  hard  truth  that  it  is  debt, 
or  that  the  labor  of  the  people  is  given  as  security,  or 
that  workingmen,  tugging  in  the  harness,  have  been 
blessed  by  statesmen  with  an  addition  to  their  load. 


DEBTS.  163 

We  do  not  need  more  money  so  much  as  cheap  gold 
and  no  more  debt.  The  Son  of  Man,  or  the  destiny  of 
the  human  race,  is  bound  by  bonds  to  the  gold  standard, 
and  continually  wounded  and  battened  upon  by  the 
vulture,  Special  Privilege. 

Note. — Had  the  Lord  told  Adam  on  the  day  of  his 
creation,  that  He  would  give  him  a  salary  of  $25,000  a 
year  for  taking  care  of  the  garden,  and  had  he  drawn 
his  salary  regularly  till  now,  he  still  would  not  have 
drawn  as  large  a  sum  as  Wm.  H.  Vanderbilt  left  to  his 
heirs  at  his  death.  25,000  multiplied  by  6,000  is  equal 
to  150,000,000.  Vanderbilt's  wealth  was  estimated  at 
$200^000,000. 

Note. — As  an  example  of  "congestion  of  wealth" 
in  certain  quarters,  we  copy  the  following  from  the 
San  Francisco  Examiner,  April  5.  1899:  "The  wealth 
represented  at  the  Vanderbilt  Fair  nuptials  was  enor- 
mous, among  the  \\ealthy  ones  present  were  the  fol- 
lowing" (the  Astors.  who  live  in  Xew  York  City,  and 
elsewhere,  upon  the  fat  of  New  York  workingmen, 
that  is.  the  fat  that  never  gets  to  New  York  work- 
ingmen, seem  to  be  conspicuously  absent  from  this 
beautiful  union  of  Hearts  and  brilliant  aggregation  of 
Value.  The  sums  are  given  in  million  dollars)  Mrs. 
W.  Rockefeller,  150;  C.  Vanderbilt,  125;  Geo.  and  F. 
W.  Vanderbilt,  r,o,  each;  \V.  D.  Sloane  and  Dr.  W.  S. 
Webb,  50  each;  Klliot  F.  Sheparcl,  30;  Eldridge  T. 
Gerry,  Moses  Taylor.  H.  McTwombley  and  C.  H. 
Mackay..  25  each;  H.  P.  Whitney,  O.  H.  P.  Belmont 
and  Orme  Wilson,  15  each;  Flenry  Clews,  guilty  of 
many  wise  saws  and  modern  instances  in  praise  of*  the 
beauties  of  gold  monetism,  "banker  13  Broad  St.,  N.  Y., 
Dealer  in  U.  S.  bonds  and  other  high-grade  Investment 
Securities;  correspondence  invited,"  TO  (no  charge  for 
the  advertisement);  H.  O.  Havemeyer,  Jr.,  Samuel  F. 
Barge,  Col.  Wm.  Jay,  Win.  P.  Thompson,  Ogclen  Mills, 
John  A.  Burden,  Jr.,  5  each;  other  guests,  50;  being  a 
total  of  $840  000,000. 


164  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

According  to  the  U.  S.  Treasurer's  report  of  Nov. 
i,  1899.  the  total  stock  of  U.  S.  "money"  outside  of 
the  treasury  was  $1,963,716,148.  In  1899  the  to- 
tal indebtedness,  public  and  private,  of  the  U.  S. 
was  $44,190,022,164,  and  the  annual  interest  about 
$2,000,000,000.  An  elegant  golden  fleece,  a  pretty  pelt 
skinned  annually  from  American  workingmen.  The 
total  stock  of  gold  in  the  U.  S.  as  estimated  by  the  U. 
S.  Treasurer  in  1899  was  $945,798,788.  If  other  than 
national  debts  in  the  world  are  as  large  in  proportion  as 
they  are  in  the  U.  S.  (which  they  probably  are  not),  the 
united  indebtedness  of  the  world  would  be  about 
$i  ,000,000,000,000 — one  trillion. 

Get  W.  PI.  Harvey's  work  entitled  "Money,  Trusts 
and  Imperialism''  on  this  subject  of  debt,  etc.,  published 
by  the  Coin  Publishing  Co.,  Chicago,  price  25  cents. 
Mr.  Harvey  deserves  well  of  his  countrymen  and  has 
done  more  than  any  other  one  man  to  bring  these  enor- 
mities before  the  American  people. 

The  quantity  of  gold  available  for  money  in  the  world 
is  estimated  at  $4,400,000,000. 

This  estimation  is  admitted  or  accepted  by  both  mo- 
nometallists  and  bimetallists.  Making  it  all  900  fine  like 
U.  S.  gold,  there  are  8,108  tons;  one  ton  being  worth 
$542,635,  and  at  1 1  cubic  feet  to  the  ton  it  would  be 
14,189  cubic  feet,  which  is  a  block  20x20x35.47  feet. 
Remember  this  is  counting  it  as  9-10  fine,  like  the  stand- 
ard bullion  of  the  U.  S.,  whereas  were  it  pure  gold  it 
would  be  much  smaller,  because  copper  being  much 
lighter  or  of  less  specific  gravity  than  gold  occupies  a 
very  large  proportion  of  the  space,  probably  one-fifth. 
This  is  the  size  of  the  calf,  for  this  ball  Terra  it  is  not  a 
very  large  one,  but  this  bears  no  proportion  to  the  devo- 
tion of  its  worshipers. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
The  Remedy 

Is  to  weaken  the  purchasing  power  of  gold,  to  dimin- 
ish the  value  of  gold,  to  cut  off  the  demand  for  gold, 
to  cut  off  the  command  that  gold  has  over  the  services 
of  men,  to  make  it  cheap  as  measured  in  human  effort, 
which  can  be  done  by  refusing  to  work  for  it,  and  the 
debts  could  be  left  to  go  ahead  and  pay  themselves, 
which  they  would  do  with  grand  acceleration.  We  pro- 
pose that  the  gold  standard  be  abandoned  and  some 
other  material  adopted  as  money;  not  for  the  purpose 
of  increasing  the  value  of  that  other  material  (although 
incidentally  this  might  and  probably  would  happen), 
but  for  the  purpose  of  lightening  the  debts  of  the  world, 
payable  in  gold,  and  making  it  possible  for  the  labor 
of  the  world  to  pay  itself  out  of  pawn  or  peonage,  and 
become  disenthralled.  We  therefore  propose  as  money, 
pure  silver,  without  alloy,  and  for  a  money  unit  the  tenth 
part  of  a  pound  avoirdupois,  or  700  grains  thereof,  and 
that  this  be  coined  and  used  for  the  purpose  of  paying 
labor  and  for  all  the  purposes  of  money.  Every  form 
of  paper  may  be  employed  as  in  gold  money,  the  unit 
can  be  divided  into  halves  and  quarters,  tenths,  twenti- 
eths, hundredths,  thousandths,  and  token  coins  may  be 
used  of  nickel  bronze  or  copper. 

Conversion  tables  can  be  easily  made  so  that  we  can 

(165) 


166  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

instantly  and  justly  adjust  wages  and  prices  in  a  smooth 
step  from  one  to  the  other  without  inconvenience,  and 
after  that  the  markets  continue  on  seeking  their  levels, 
and  prices  would  naturally  regulate  themselves  as  they 
always  have  done  and  as  they  do  now,  by  what  is  called 
the  "law  of  demand  and  supply."  (Where  is  that  law?) 
Our  new  money  unit  should  be  given  a  new  name  and 
the  name  "dollar"  left  to  distinguish  the  old  gold  U.  S. 
dollar  which  can  be  used  and  must  be  used  for  the  pur- 
pose of  paying  old  gold  debts  in  the  U.  S.  We  will 
temporarily  call  this  new  money  unit  an  x,  being  a  con- 
venient unit  weight  of  chemically  pure  silver.  Silver  is 
worth  now  about  60  cents  an  ounce  of  480  grains.  Our 
new  account  unit  is  700  grains;  multiplying  the  gold 
price  per  troy  oz.  of  silver  by  i  11-24  or  4«o  will  give 
the  gold  price  of  the  X  or  proposed  new  money  unit. 
This  table  can  be  quickly  and  easily  made,  and  the  step 
from  a  gold  basis  to  a  silver  one  made  with  scarcely  a 
ripple  as  far  as  labor  is  concerned,  but  the  effect  on 
the  gold  market  would  be  magical  and  instantaneous 
and  the  purchasing  power  of  workingmen  increased 
immediately,  and  this  prosperity  would  continue  in 
accelerated  ratio. 

Labor  is  paid  in  value  and  it  is  not  essential  that  it 
should  come  in  gold.  It  can  just  as  well  be  carried  in 
some  other  metallic  substance. 

To  illustrate  what  the  effect  would  be,  suppose  that 
no  laboring  man  in  the  world  would  for  his  services  take 
gold  or  (which  is  the  same  thing)  any  token  for  gold, 
either  of  paper  or  metal;  what  would  the  effect  be? 

Gold  being  of  no  further  use  for  the  purpose  of  pay- 
ing wages  would  "fall"  immediately,  and  we  would  have 
"rising  prices"  and  great  would  be  the  fall  of  gold,  for 


THE   REMEDY.  167 

it  sits  exalted,  raised  to  that  bad  eminence  through 
unjust  laws  made  for  Greed  and  upheld  by  Folly  or 
Ignorance. 

However,  it  could  never  fall  so  low,  never  get  so  ab- 
ject, but  that  it  would  be  as  good,  weight  for  weight,  for 
the  purpose  of  paying  gold  debts  with,  as  it  was  before. 
A  gold  dollar  debt  (barring  interest)  never  goes  higher 
than  a  gold  dollar  debt.  If  gold  were  so  cheap  that  you 
could  afford  to  throw  it  into  a  duck-pond  to  see  the 
waves  circle  from  the  contact,  it  would  still  be  the  same 
gold  and  just  as  good  for  bond-paying.  We  can  not, 
however,  hope  to  start  this  reform  all  over  the  world  at 
once,  for  such  an  attempt  would  be  preposterous. 

Men  are  not  far  enough  advanced  to  take  so  enlight- 
ened a  step,  nor  is  it  necessary;  there  must  be  a  begin- 
ning to  all  things,  a  first  time.  We  can  do  this  very 
nicely  in  part  oi  the  world.  If  we  could  do  this  in  the 
U.  S.  or  in  any  part  of  it,  it  would  tend  to  ameliorate 
the  conditions,  to  slacken  the  strain  or  tension,  and  the 
least  relaxation  of  pressure  affords  wonderful  relief. 

if  we  could  permanently  weaken  the  purchasing 
power  of  gold  and  get  it  on  the  scale  of  descent,  we 
would  case  the  debts  of  the  world,  lighten  the  burden 
on  the  man  with  the  hoe  as  well  as  on  the  man  with  the 
dynamo  or  the  man  with  the  book,  and  have  "easy 
money"  and  "good  times." 

Anything  that  weakens  the  strength  of  the  purchas- 
ing power  of  gold  brightens  the  times,  lightens  the  debts 
or  burden,  and  increases  the  purchasing  power  of  labor. 

Wherever  this  has  been  done  even  temporarily,  pros- 
perity has  come  smiling  in  train. 

This  has  been  done  by  suddenly  increasing  the  stock 
of  money,  as,  for  instance,  by  the  discovery  and  exploita- 


168  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

tion  of  America,  also  in  modern  times  by  the  discovery 
of  gold  in  California,  Australia,  and  South  Africa  and 
Alaska,  which  no  doubt  has  eased  our  recent  times  most 
wonderfully,  but  owing  to  the  vast  increase  of  gold 
indebtedness,  ten  Calif ornias,  producing  as  in  1853, 
would  not  suffice  under  present  conditions. 

Men  are  disposed  to  increase  their  stock  of  value;  it 
is  to  their  "interest'"  to  do  so. 

A  man  who  possesses  a  large  quantity  of  value  and  is 
easy-going,  or  rather  retired,  as  far  as  active  business 
is  concerned,  is  apt  to  be  called  "wealthy,"  while  a  man 
who  has  a  considerable  quantity  of  value  and  is  active 
and  disposed  to  initiate,  or  invest  in,  paying  enterprises, 
or  to  "speculate"  somewhat,  is  apt  to  be  called  a  '''cap- 
italist." The  first  is  more  apt  to  collect  interest  on 
government  bonds  or  something  of  the  sort,  the  latter, 
profits  in  business  or  sometimes  in  "schemes." 

The  possession  of  a  large  amount  of  value  means 
everything  as  far  as  "worldly"  success  is  concerned; 
therefore  men  are  inclined  to  hoard  what  is  increasing 
in  price  or  relative  value,  and  to  sell  what  is  decreasing. 
They  are  naturally,  therefore,  inclined  to  increase  their 
command  over  the  services  of  men,  which  means  their 
own  immunity  from  the  necessity  of  toiling,  and  the 
ability  to  clo  those  things  which  please  them.  There  is, 
in  fact,  no  "vanity"  (emptiness)  in  riches  or  value;  it  is 
a  solid  support  and  a  powerful  comfort,  but  should, 
according  to  dreamers,  be  fairly  obtained. 

Obedient  to  this  law  of  hoarding  and  relinquishing, 
if  gold  were  known  to  be  on  a  declining  market,  the 
tendency  would  be  to  unload  gold,  and  we  would  have 
heavy  offers  upon  a  declining  market,  and  a  general 
"slump"  in  gold;  a  colossal  cheapening  of  the  world's 


THE   REMEDY.  169 

indebtedness,  as  reckoned  in  the  labor  of  men.  There 
would  be  a  great  general  rise  in  the  value  of  other  com- 
modities as  compared  to  the  value  of  gold,  though 
pound  for  pound  these  commodities  among  themselves 
might  purchase  what  they  did  before.  The  fall  would 
be  so  fast  as  hardly  to  be  compared  to  the  fall  of  silver 
in  recent  years,  no  doubt  occasioned  by  demonetiza- 
tion, for  there  were  no  very  large  debts  in  the  world, 
payable  only  in  silver,  and  the  tension  upon  it  was  small 
as  compared  to  the  tension  that  now  obtains  in  the  case 
of  gold. 

Silver  has  vastly  the  advantage  of  gold  in  any  struggle 
for  monetary  existence,  for  gold  does  not  serve  the  pur- 
pose for  coin  and  money  for  moderate  every-day  small 
transactions  from  hand  to  hand,  being  too  valuable, 
therefore  practical  reasons  and  scientific  fact,  urge  in 
favor  of  a  silver  money  rather  than  a  gold  one. 

Men  can  do  business  just  exactly  the  same,  whether 
gold  be  money  or  some  other  metal. 

The  only  purchasing  power  there  is  in  gold,  is,  of 
course,  its  value,  and  as  this  represents  command  over 
the  services  of  men,  the  determination  by  labor  of  all 
kinds,  not  to  allow  the  use  of  gold  as  a  medium  or  means 
by  which  value  in  payment  for  services  shall  be  con- 
veyed to  them,  would  cause  the  gaudy  gold  bubble  to 
collapse,  as  it  would  be  a  cessation  of  the  inflation  or  of 
the  excessive  command  it  has  over  human  services. 

As  Labor  blew  it  up  or  inflated  it  so  can  she  cause  it 
to  collapse. 

In  order  to  do  this  it  is  expedient  that  some  other 
metal  be  selected  for  money,  and  we  propose  silver,  not 
from  any  particular  love  for  silver  itself  but  for  the  love 
of  mankind  for  the  good  of  the  race,  for  the  future  of 
humanity,  for  the  happiness  of  mankind. 


170  VAUCS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

It  has  been  attempted  to  forever  block  the  way  to 
this  remedy  by  that  most  iniquitous  of  all  legislation, 
whereby  the  gold  standard  is  foisted  upon  nations  by 
despotic  legal  force. 

We  have  suggested  silver,  but  with  no  regard  to  its 
ratio,  which  is  but  another  word  for  its  gold  price.  We 
do  not  need  16  to  T,  \ve  might  get  silver  to  8  to  i  and 
then  gold  men  might  clamor  for  16  to  i,  and  it  would 
be  better  at  i  to  i  or  lower,  as  long  as  there  is  a  debt 
in  the  world,  for  let  a  man  who  has  a  surplus  of  value 
spend  rather  than  lend  at  .usury,  or,  if  he  so  lends,  let 
him  take  his  own  risk  as  men  do  when  they  sow  wheat. 

The  argument  that  gold  was  ordained  by  divine  de- 
cree to  be  the  money  of  the  world,  is  rank  human  non- 
sense, only  equaled  by  the  contention  that  the  same 
divinity  is  best  served  by  a  price  of  16  to  i. 

Silver  men  should  go  in  and  retake  the  establish- 
ment which  they  say  was  stolen  from  them.  If  there 
is  anything  particularly  remarkable  about  this  com- 
modity gold,  it  is  its  beauty  and  the  fact  that  it  does 
not  tarnish,  but  it  would  be  quite  as  pretty  if  it  were 
cheaper,  and  its  general  utility  would  be  far  greater. 
A  descent  in  its  value  would  bring  it  out  of  dark  vaults 
into  the  light  of  day  to  subserve  its  natural  use  of 
preservation  by  gold  plating  and  of  ornament. 

What  we  want  is  a  spending  world,  not  a  hoarding 
world,  rapid  trade  and  communication  and  lively  times. 
This  is  the  rule  of  lessening  value,  easier  acquisition  or 
a  larger  return  for  the  labor  involved.  This  is  true 
progress,  and  high  attainment  is  to  get  useful  things 
for  little  labor;  and  there  is  no  just,  no  honest,  no  sci- 
entific reason  why  gold  should  be  exempted  from  the 
usual  law.  If  all  of  the  gold  in  the  world  should  disap- 


THE   REMEDY.  171 

pear  to-morrow,  trade  would  not  be  stopped,  but  there 
would  be  discovered  a  way  to  trade,  and  it  would  show 
us  what  slaves  we  are  to  Greed  and  Stupidity.  It  is  non- 
sense to  suppose  that  the  wheel  of  commerce  can  only 
be  well  turned  by  the  golden  stream.  As  to  "time  con- 
tracts," there  is  no  reason  why  the  rule  of  cheaper  pro- 
duction should  be  violated  for  the  special  benefit  of 
gold  or  of  any  other  money  or  commodity,  and  stand- 
ing sponsor  to  values  or  prices  is  none  of  the  business 
of  government;  and  this  rule  should  not  be  varied  for 
the  benefit  of  the  owners  of  gold  or  of  any  other  com- 
modity, or  of  the  owners  of  obligations  whereby  gold 
or  any  other  commodity  is  to  them  contracted  to  be 
delivered. 

Debts  are  contracts  for  the  delivery  of  material. 
In  trade  value  usually  accompanies  material.  The 
mind  of  man  does  not  give,  can  not  give,  nothingness 
any  trade  value. 

There  are  no  commercial  debts  for  the  delivery  of 
value  alone,  nor  can  such  a  debt  be  expressed,  as  if 
heaven  would  not,  that  men  should  be  enslaved.  The 
debts  of  the  world  outside  of  those  which  are  contracts 
for  the  delivery  of  gold  money  are  insignificant.  In 
fact,  so  much  so  that  the  ordinary  mind  only  thinks  of 
money  debts,  wrhereas  contracts  for  the  delivery  of  any 
other  species  of  goods  are  not  essentially  different. 

Wherever  anybody  owes  a  debt,  somebody  must 
own  it;  the  first  is  called  a  debtor  (Latin  debitum,  a 
debt),  and  the  latter  the  creditor. 

Whenever  the  word  "credit"  is  used  in  business, 
there,  also,  can  the  word  "debit"  or  debt  be  used.  The 
credit  system  is  just  so  much  and  with  greater  reason 
a  "debit"  system,  wherefore,  no  man  can  talk  intelli- 


172  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

gently  of  "credit"  without  at  the  same  time  including 
debit,  for  both  sides  oi  the  shield  must  be  considered  in 
a  true  comprehension  of  the  question.  Debit  and 
credit  are  more  inseparable  than  Ruth  and  Naomi. 

If  a  nation's  credit  is  said  to  be  good,  it  means  that 
its  ability  to  contract  a  "debit"  or  debt  is  good,  and  is 
based  upon  its  ability  to  extort,  tax,  or  sweat  it  out  of 
the  people. 

Debts  are  satisfied  absolutely  and  honestly  by  the 
delivery  of  the  material  specified,  and  there  can  be  no 
obligation  as  to  its  value. 

If  a  man  owes  a  debt,  it  is  no  true  part  of  govern- 
ment or  law  to  make  more  valuable  or  more  difficult 
of  acquisition  the  material  with  which  said  debt  is  to  be 
satisfied.  Let  him  have  the  benefit  of  every  means 
whereby  he  may  discharge  and  forever  cancel  this  obli- 
gation for  so  long  as  it  exists,  he  is  to  that  extent  held 
in  bondage. 

This  is  true,  also,  of  the  industrious  body  of  work- 
ingmen  and  women  of  our  country, — astronomers, 
cooks,  seamstresses,  plowmen,  et  al.  There  is  not  a 
single  reasonable  argument  in  favor  of  the  gold  stand- 
ard, which  acts  as  an  endless  belt  carrying  the  wealth  of 
nations  into  the  lair  of  the  Golden  Tiger. 

The  game,  which  is  one  of  silent  legal  confiscation, 
has  its  government  license,  its  cappers,  its  official  bul- 
lies, and  its  sneaking  hangers-on,  besides  a  large  un- 
certain number  of  worshipful,  enthusiastic  but  igno- 
rant or  "gullible"  advocates,  like  Professor  Laughlin, 
for  example. 

Columbia,  on  her  knees  before  a  half-dozen  bunco 
financiers  of  haughty  finance,  is  an  inspiring  spectacle, 
and  it  is  refreshing  to  be  told  by  college  professors  that 


THE   REMEDY.  173 

their  own  or  their  ancestors'  "self-denial"  and  "sacri- 
fice" put  these  moneyed  gentlemen  where  they  are,  and 
that  Extravagance  keeps  Industry  down. 

At  least  this  is  the  sacrifice  doctrine  of  gold-bug 
political  economy  as  it  is  taught  by  the  Levites  in  most 
of  our  colleges,  whose  walls,  camps,  laboratories,  instru- 
ments, and  books  have  been  built  by  the  brain  and 
brawn  of  Labor,  and  the  salaries  of  whose  professors  are 
of  necessity  bled  from  the  body  politic,  taxed  from 
workingmen.  Industrious,  earnest,  honest  men  have 
a  right  to  expect  a  better  return  and  to  become  a  little 
impatient  at  times  at  the  emptiness  of  the  result,  most 
particularly  and  especially  in  the  department  of  political 
economy,  which  does  not  seem  able  to  see  any  public 
wrong,  much  less  announce  any  remedy.  Its  principal 
business  seems  to  be  to  tell  the  workingman  to  keep 
quiet,  that  things  as  they  are  are  all  right,  especially  the 
gold  standard,  \\hicli  is  of  God  and  therefore  something 
with  which  workingmen  shouldn't  meddle,  and  they 
should  tread  lightly. about  such  subjects  for  fear  of  wak- 
ing somebody,  for  the  chair  of  Political  Economy  is 
usually  a  dainty,  high-paid,  gold-bug  snoozery,  and  it  is 
treason,  profanity,  sacrilege,  blasphemy,  anarchy,  to 
bring  a  railing  accusation  against  so  perfect  a  system 
— of  ignorance,  despotism,  and  robbery. 

The  debt  of  the  world  can  almost  be  called  the  sin  of 
the  world.  Indeed  Christ,  who  talked  for  all  mankind, 
and  who  is  and  was  the  great  Political  Economist,  the 
great  Teacher  and  Physician,  says  in  the  Lord's  prayer, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  Matthew,  chapter  6, 
verse  12,  "Forgive  us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our 
debtors."  If  "forgive"  should  mean  here  the  same  as 
to  end,  to  do  away  with,  to  finalize,  to  redeem,  to  re- 


174  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

claim,  to  return,  to  wash  away,  etc.,  it  would  read,  Do 
away  with  our  debts  as  we  do  away  with  our  debtors 
(i.  e.,  by  paying  them  and  incurring  no  more  debts). 

It  seems  almost  as  if  this  were  a  necessary  prepara- 
tion to  the  ushering  in  of  a  happier  period  on  earth 
often  alluded  to  as  the  "Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  where 
the  last  would  be  first  (that  is,  the  greatest  servant  or 
benefactor  held  in  the  highest  esteem),  etc.;  and,  if  so, 
it  has  a  greater  significance  than  at  first  appears,  and  it 
may  be  that  this  is  the  true  interpretation  when  heard 
aright,  for  it  may  be  that  hearing  we  have  not  heard, 
and  seeing  we  have  not  seen. 

In  Luke  II  the  words  are  somewhat  different,  ''and 
forgive  us  our  sins,  for  [as]  we  forgive  every  one  that 
is  indebted  to  us,"  as  ii  a  world  without  debt  would  be 
a  world  without  sin.  Indeed  poverty  and  crime  may 
be  considered  as  diseases  of  the  body  politic,  to  be 
treated  more  certainly  by  reaching  the  cause  of  the 
disease  rather  than  temporized  with  by  soothing  lotions 
(charity)  or  local  excisions  (imprisonment  and  punish- 
ment by  death,  etc.).  Indeed,  it  is  in  these  matters  that 
people  must  look  to  their  preat  political  economists  as 
great  physicians,  teachers,  guides,  counselors,  and 
friends. 

If  the  Lord's  Prayer  should  mean  what  we  have  indi- 
cated, and  it  is  quite  possible  that  it  may,  for  the  idea 
grows  stronger  under  stronger  reflection,  it  is  time  that 
the  thoughtful  Christian  world  upon  which  is  charged 
the  redemption  and  regeneration  of  mankind  should  be 
"about"  the  practical  accomplishment  of  this ''business." 
It  would  be  the  realization  of  what  it  has  daily  and  hourly 
been  praying  for  through  the  whole  of  the  long  length 
of  these  nineteen  centuries  of  turmoil,  robbery,  and 


THE   REMEDY.  17-") 

slaughter.  Mankind  is  becoming  more  discriminative 
and  properly  irreverent  toward  holy  pretense  and  pious 
cant  or  mere  eye-service  and  lip-service.  Lives  that 
are  led  only  for  the  approval  of  Mrs.  Grundy  and  Praise- 
God-vvho-  hath  -sanctified  -us-  and  -who-hath-inade-us-to-be- 
better-than-other-people  incense  is  not  enough,  for  this  is 
a  world  to  be  saved  from  wrong,  and  of  Christianity 
the  world  demands  meet  fruit.  If  by  light  from  one 
text  we  may  read  another,  then  verses  19,  20,  and 
21,  3d  chapter  of  Acts,  might  read  as  follows:  Reform 
ye,  therefore,  and  change  your  theories  that  your  debts 
may  be  blotted  out,  when  the  times  of  prosperity  shall 
come  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  (or  right  govern- 
ment). 

And  He  shall  send  Peace,  which  before  was  preached 
unto  you,  which  shall  be  kept  from  you  till  the  times  of 
the  restitution  of  all  things  (equitable  distribution  of 
wealth  or  value)  \xhich  God  hath  spoken  by  the  mouth 
of  all  His  true  men  of  science  since  the  world  began. 

To  ask  the  government  of  the  United  States  to  coin 
a  standard  silver  coin  that  may  be  used  for  a  money 
unit,  would  be  too  great  a  task,  it  requires  too  much 
anticipatory  or  preliminary  education.  Indeed,  it  is 
with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  the  justest  measures  or 
the  most  necessary  for  the  public  good  can  be  gotten 
through  our  too  sordid,  venial,  and  time-serving  Con- 
gress, and.  under  the  prevailing  sentiment,  any  measure 
opposed  by  the  bond-holding  class,  could  never  get 
through.  Because  of  ''influence''  an  interoceanic  canal 
is  deferred  and  a  poisoned  army  beef  horror  white- 
washed. Dead  soldiers  don't  count. 

Less  can  be  expected  of  the  Parliament  of  England, 
even  more  thoroughly  dominated  by  the  gold  standard 
fallac. 


176  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

As  to  attempting  to  have  this  done  by  international 
agreement  the  idea  is  preposterous,  for  other  nations 
are  far  more  devout  worshipers  of  the  golden  calf  than 
is  our  own;  to  such  an  extent  is  this  true,  that  the  very 
expression  "international  agreement"  in  this  country 
on  this  subject  is  treacherous  and  only  a  grand  political 
subterfuge,  which  great  "wire  pullers"  regard  as  a  huge 
joke,  and  at  which  they  laugh  in  their  sleeves  while  it 
furnishes  an  elegant  sop  to  the  "rank  and  file." 

Therefore,  we  propose  that  private  individuals,  min- 
ers, merchants,  and  others  shall  at  once  form  a  com- 
pany and  coin  silver  in  San  Francisco.  The  money 
unit  to  be  one-tenth  of  a  pound  avoirdupois  pure  sil- 
ver, should  at  once  arrange  for  a  silver  clearing  house, 
and  silver  drafts,  cheques,  etc.,  and  put  the  whole  ma- 
chinery of  trade  upon  a  silver  money  basis,  make  price 
lists  of  goods  in  silver,  establishing  silver  business 
agencies  in  San  Francisco  for  all  the  world,  sending  out 
silver  price  lists  to  China,  Mexico,  the  Philippines,  and 
other  silver-using  countries,  arranging  a  system  so  that 
silver  mines  at  least  could  begin  at  once  to  pay  their 
labor  in  silver  and  so  that  this  money  could  buy  all 
goods  with  as  much  ease  as  is  now  done  with  gold 
money  and  its  tokens.  It  is  not  necessary  that  this 
company  should  buy  large  quantites  of  silver.  Own- 
ers of  silver  could  send  their  silver  to  be  coined  and  pay 
for  the  refining  and  coinage.  Remember  that  the 
money  is  pure  silver  which  is  a  great  advantage  in 
many  ways.  Appropriate  devices  could  be  selected, 
and  an  appropriate  name  given  to  the  new  silver  unit. 

This  would  make  it  possible  to  pay  labor  and  to 
carry  on  the  whole  cycle  of  trade  upon  a  silver  basis, 
something  impossible  to  do  in  the  United  States  as 


THE   REMEDY.  177 

thing's  are  now.  Favorable  arrangements  could  un- 
doubtedly be  made  with  the  government  of  Mexico. 
For  instance,  the  president  of  Mexico  could  issue  a 
decreto  or  decree  making  the  pound  weight  of  Mexico 
in  the  future,  to  exactly  correspond  with  the  avoirdu- 
pois pound  of  the  United  States,  for  at  present  there  is 
a  slight  difference  between  the  Mexican  libra  and  our 
pound.  Also  a  decree  establishing  the  just  ratio  be- 
tween these  coins  and  Mexican  dollars,  which  might  be 
mutually  arranged  by  this  company  as  to  Mexican  dol- 
lars. Similar  arrangements  could  probably  be  made 
with  every  country  in  South  America.  The  commerce 
of  China  could  be  bid  for,  with  manifest  advantage 
over  hide-bound  gold  standard  countries,  for  an  under- 
standing or  harmony  by  weight  as  between  the  new 
weight  or  coin  of  this  company,  and  the  various 
Chinese  taels,  etc.,  could  quickly  be  found.  Agencies 
could  be  placed  in  other  parts  of  the  United  States  and 
of  the  world.  Silver  miners  could  trade  with  silver 
agencies  in  Kansas  City,  Chicago,  or  New  York,  and 
other  places,  and  there  would  be  a  favorable  disposition 
by  laboring  men  to  adopt  the  new  pay,  especially  as 
soon  as  they  understood  its  meaning  and  could  see  that 
it  is  quite  as  convenient,  besides  its  use  would  be  con- 
ducive to  the  public  welfare  and  therefore  patriotic  or 
generally  economical.  After  all,  the  exclusive  "royal 
attribute"  of  fixing  the  money  of  a  country  by  such  a 
law  as  that  of  the  united  States  of  1873  or  as  was  re- 
peated in  1900,  is  only  a  piece  of  despotism,  a  diabol- 
ism, for  we  no  more  need  a  despotically  protected 
money  than  we  need  a  despotically  protected  creed,  or 
a  despotically  abridged  commerce. 

It  is  time  for  bankers   to  get  out  of   the    governing 
business,  and    that    government    quit    this    dirty  little 

12 


178  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

intermeddling  in  the  matter  of  the  metal  trade  which  is 
fraught  with  such  vast  and  injurious  consequences  in 
the  matter  of  the  labor  trade.  An  agency  should  be 
placed  in  the  Philippines,  where  \ve  are  going  with  the 
sword  in  one  hand  and  the  gold  standard  in  the  other, 
so  that  the  Filipinos  shall  not  be  forced  to  a  gold  basis 
as  India  was  by  a  ruthless  and  violent  perversion  of 
power  (''in  council'"),  where  heavy  taxes  for  a  gold  in- 
debtedness are  wrung  from  a  skeletonoid  population. 
This  silver  demonetization  in  India  is  resented  by  the 
Indian  population,  and  justly  so,  for  in  this  England  or 
her  agents  have  much  to  answrer  for.  If  the  people  of 
England  or  the  Government  of  Britain  knew  what  is 
conducive  to  true  British  interests  it  would  put  India 
at  once  to  a  silver  basis,  for  the  gold  standard  there 
does  in  nowise  benefit  the  British  people  (except  a  few 
debt  kings),  and  only  augments  what  it  pretends  to 
diminish,  that  is,  the  evils  due  to  the  fall  of  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  silver. 

It  is  in  nowise  politic  to  put  them  under  the  same 
system  of  wholesale  robbery  as  that  suffered  by  the  man 
on  British  soil  from  whose  ankles  the  shackles  never 
fall,  i.  e.,  the  British  workingrnan. 

The  immense  trade  of  China  is  almost  at  our  doors, 
and  it  is  to  our  interest  to  make  this  great  city  of  San 
Francisco  to  be.  one  of  the  grandest  ever  known,  as  well 
as  to  benefit  every  other  city  in  the  United  States  and 
in  the  world.  We  have  incidentally  immense  mining 
interests  in  the  United  States  that  will  be  benefited, 
all  calling  for  immense  supplies  of  machinery  and  other 
merchandise. 

As  to  legal  objections,  nothing  can  prevent  people 
from  refining  silver  and  making  chemically  pure  silver, 
nor  from  stamping  metal  and  certifying  to  its  quality 
and  weight.  • 


THE    REMEDY.  179 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  Article  I, 
section  8,  paragraph  5,  says,  "Congress  shall  have 
power1'  "to  coin  money,  regulate  the  value  thereof  and 
of  foreign  coins,  and  hx  the  standard  of  weights  and 
measures."  In  the  first  place  the  article  is  not  man- 
datory; it  simply  says,  "Coiujrcx*  xltall  linrc  power." 

The  company  technically  would  not  coin  money,  it 
would  simply  stamp  metal,  which  it  has  a  perfect  right 
to  do,  and  it  has  a  perfect  right  to  refine  or  make  chem- 
ically pure  silver.  If  other  people  or  if  any  people 
should  use  this  stamped  metal  or  coinage  as  money,  the 
government  of  the  United  States  could  not  prevent  it, 
and  probably  would  not  attempt  so  manifest  an  exer- 
cise of  despotism. 

"Regulate  the  value  thereof."  Here  our  forefathers 
gave  Congress  power  to  do  something  it  can  not,  could 
not,. never  did,  nor  never  can  possibly  do. 

"The  value  thereof"  is  regulated  by  trade  by  ''de- 
mand and  supply,"  ''and  fix  the  standard  of  weights  and 
measures."  This  money  we  propose  to  weigh  by  the 
avoirdupois  standard,  so  there  can  be  no  collision  here. 

Sec.  10,  Art.  I,  says:  "No  state  shall  enter  into  any 
treaty  alliance  or  confederation;  grant  letters  of  marque 
and  reprisal;  coin  money;  emit  bills  of  credit;  make 
anything  but  gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender  in  payment 
of  debt;  pass  any  bill  of  attainder,  expo'st  facto  law,  or 
law  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts,  or  grant  any 
title  of  nobility.'' 

In  reading  by  inference  it  seems  by  this  that  a  state 
can  make  silver  coin  a  tender  in  payment  of  debts,  or 
recognize  it  as  an  account  unit  or  money  unit.  If  so 
all  the  western  silver  states  can  legally  be  put  upon  a 
silver  basis  and  can  specify  their  money  unit,  and  we 


180  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

propose  the  tenth  part  of  a  pound  avoirdupois  or  700 
grains.  It  is  not  at  all  necessary  that  the  state  should 
coin  it,  for  that  can  be  done  by  a  private  firm  or  by  a 
company.  All  that  it  is  necessary  to  do  is  to  fix  the 
account  unit  (as,  for  instance,  700  grains  pure  silver). 
Any  mass  of  bullion  if  we  know  its  weight  and  fineness 
can  be  calculated  into  its  number  of  these  account  or 
money  units  as  easily  or  rather  more  easily  than  it  can 
be  counted  into  ounces  troy  of  pure  silver.  If  it  were 
pure  silver  its  avoirdupois  weight  at  once  gives  its 
number  of  these  new  money  units.  The  only  other 
paragraph  in  this  Constitution  possibly  germane  to  the 
subject  is  paragraph  6.  section  8,  Article  I:  "Congress 
shall  have  power  to  provide  for  the  punishment  of 
counterfeiting  the  securities  and  current  coin  of  the 
United  States." 

Neither  this  coin  nor  this  money  can  possibly  be 
called  counterfeit. 

Armed  with  samples  of  these  goods,  that  is,  the  new 
account  unit,  some  appropriate  literature,  and  a  few  in- 
telligent orators,  more  work  could  be  done  for  silver 
money  in  a  week  than  has  ever  been  done  all  taken  to- 
gether in  Congress.  The  issue  would  be  forced  upon 
the  government  and  people  of  the  United  States,  and 
would  have  to  be  met  and  could  not  be  evaded,  and 
gold  monometallism  in  the  United  States  could  be 
easily  and  finally  overthrown,  also  in  England  and 
Europe  as  well,  for  the  example  would  be  catching, 
and  people  are  tired  of  government  by  gold  debt  kings. 

The  opportunity  for  San  Erancisco  and  the  west  is 
one  that  has  hardly  been  equaled  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  and  to  put  it  into  practise  would  cost  but  little 
and  bring  in  tremendous  returns,  for  the  idea  is  simple, 
scientific,  practical,  and  of  vast  consequence. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
Origin  of  the  Dollar. 

A  silver  piece  approaching  our  silver  dollar  or  the 
Spanish  peso  (the  word  peso  means  originally  weight; 
in  Spanish  the  verb  to  weigh  is  pesar;  pesar  as  a  noun 
also  means  grief  or  sorrow,  as  being  something  that 
weighs  painfully  on  the  soul)  was  originally  coined  in 
St.  Joachimsthal  (San  Joaquin  Valley)  in  Bohemia. 

They  were  first  called  St.  Joachimsthalers,  then  thal- 
ers,  in  Holland  dalers,  in  England  dollars.  For  the 
origin  of  the  sign  $  many  fanciful  theories  have  been 
promulgated,  some  saying  that  it  came  from  the  letters 
U  S.  Others  have  said  that  it  is  the  caduceus  or  wand 
of  Mercury,  which  is  usually  represented  as  encircled 
by  two  serpents.  Mercury  in  one  of  his  journeys  en- 
countered two  serpents  raging  in  mortal  combat  and 
placed  his  wand  between  them  when  they  peacefully  en- 
circled it  with  their  heads  toward  the  point  and  thus  it 
was  carried  by  the  messenger  of  the  Olympians,  a  swift- 
footed  master  of  tact,  and  a  pleasant  and  able  agent,  be- 
sides being  at  times  a  shifty  rogue.  Another  story  is 
that  it  is  a  corruption  of  the  figure  8,  because  a 
Spanish  peso  w7as  also  coined  into  eight  reals,  and  it 
is  said  that  these  dollars  were  called  "pieces  of  eight" 
(though  the  Spanish  media  onza  would  be  a  piece  of 
eight  dollars  or  a  Spanish  escudo  or  gold  two-dollar 

(181) 


182  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

piece  would  be  a  piece  of  eight  shillings),  especially  in 
stories  of  pirates  of  "the  Spanish  Main." 

Indeed  piracy  was  for  a  long  time  an  exceedingly 
profitable  business  around  and  about  the  Caribbean 
Sea  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

The  pirates  were  usually  English,  French,  or  Colo- 
nials (anything  not  Spanish),  and  occupied  themselves 
in  trading  in  slaves  and  mahogany,  tortoise  shell,  rose- 
wood, logwood,  India  rubber,  and  in  African  and  Amer- 
ican gold,  and  American  silver  exclusively,  not  being 
able  to  get  any  from  anywhere  else,  and  in  collecting 
a  high  tariff  for  revenue  only.  Though  active  and  en- 
ergetic men  of  business,  and,  in  many  cases,  of  great 
natural  ability  as  well  as  of  acquired  accomplishments, 
owing  to  free-trade  theory  and  scientific  practical  in- 
terference, they  were  at  last  (perhaps  unfortunately  for 
them)  obliged  to  suspend  business. 

However,  they  were  the  first  to  demand  decently- 
modeled  ships,  and  some  good,  honestly-made  mahog- 
any vessels  were  turned  out  in  their  own  shipyards. 
Our  fathers*  got  these  "pieces  of  eight"  or  "Spanish 
milled"  (minted)  dollars  through  trade  with  the  West 
Indies  and  other  Spanish  lands  and  largely  through 
these  pirates,  the  Anglo- American  colonial  ports  fur- 
nishing them  friendly  harbors  and  favorable  points  of 
trade. 

In  old  times  the  only  difference  between  a  Spanish 
dollar  made  in  Spain  and  one  made  in  a  colony  was  that 
the  colony-made  dollar  had  a  small  figure  of  a  crown 
over  the  mint  letter.  M  meant  Madrid,  Spain;  M,  with 
a  crown  over  it,  meant  the  City  of  Mexico;  Z,  with  a 
crown  over  it,  meant  Zacatecas,  Mexico. 

The  money  of  the  American  Colonies  at  the  time  of 


ORIGIN    OF    THE   DOLLAR.  183 

the  Revolutionary  \Yar  and  before  was  silver,  and  the 
money  unit  was  the  "Spanish-milled  dollar."  We  got 
the  sign  $  at  the  same  time  that  we  got  the  dollar.  In 
old  times  the  sign  \\as  written  with  the  S  turned  like  a 
Z  and  crossed  by  two  perpendicular  lines,  and  was  ex- 
clusively so  written  in  Revolutionary  times,  and  is  so 
written  now  by  Spaniards  and  Hispano  Americans 
(though  in  the  United  States  it  is  often  an  S  with  only 
one  bar  over  it).  The  sign  $  is  a  corruption  of  pp, 
standing  for  pesos,  the  plural  of  peso. 

\Yritten  rapidly  />/;  would  soon  transform  itself  into 
the  dollar  sign  $,  which  was  used  long  before  there  was 
an  English  settlement  in  America. 

This  method  pp  of  making  the  plural  by  doubling  the 
initial  letter  has  fallen  almost  into  disuse;  however, 
examples  of  it  are  still  extant,  for  instance,  nn  stands 
for  -nomlin's,  meaning  names. 

This  sign  $  probably  took  well  because  it  would  not 
be  confounded  with  another  common  sign  in  com- 
mercial books,  bc-in^  also  'pp  and  standing  for  paginas, 
meaning  pages;  pp  68  would  mean  page  68. 

The  Spaniards  inherited  this  method  of  writing  the 
plural  from  the  Latins.  An  example  of  this  is  LL.  D., 
Legum  Doctor  or  Doctor  of  Laws. 


CHAPTER  XVIL 
History  of  American  Money. 

Philip  V  of  Spain,  grandson  of  Louis  XIV,  was  born 
in  1683,  proclaimed  king  in  1700,  and  died  in  1746. 
Fernando  or  Ferdinand  VI,  king  of  Spain,  son  of  Philip 
V,  was  born  in  1712,  reigned  from  1746,  died  1759. 
Carlos,  third  king  of  Spain,  was  the  son  of  Philip  V, 
and  brother  and  successor  of  Fernando  VI,  born  1716, 
conquered  the  two  Sicilies  1734-5,  reigned  there  till 
1759,  and  reigned  in  Spain  from  1759,  and  died  1788. 

It  is  under  these  reigns  that  must  have  been  coined 
most  of  the  dollars  with  which  our  revolutionary  an- 
cestors were  acquainted.  Philip  V  was  succeeded  by 
Carlos  VI,  son  of  Carlos  III,  born  1748,  reigned  from 
1788  to  1808,  when  he  was  forced  to  abdicate. 

As  Congress  adopted  the  first  American  dollar  in 
1792,  not  many  of  the  coins  of  this  latter  reign  could 
have  been  in  circulation.  At  415  grains  .906  fine  the 
Spanish  dollar  would  contain  375-99  grains  of  Ag., 
and  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  or  "Continental 
Congress"  in  1786  declared  the  Spanish  dollar  to  con- 
tain 375.64  grains  of  Ag.  It  had  then  already  been 
adopted  as  the  money  unit  for  the  United  Colonies. 

The  dollar  coins  of  the  three  reigns  mentioned  above, 
according  to  "Smith's  Encyclopedia  of  the  Gold  and 
Silver  Coins  of  the  World,"  were  nearly  all  .906  fine, 
(184) 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICAN   MONEY.  185 

and  most  of  them  weighed  415  grains,  though  there 
were  many  of  417.  There  was  one  debased  dollar 
coined  for  Mexico  .896  fine,  but  even  this  one  con- 
tained 374  grains  of  pure  silver. 

All  the  others  were  .906  fine,  but  there  were  many 
Spanish  quarters  coined,  four  designs  differing  slightly, 
all  of  the  fineness  .906  and  of  the  weight  103  grains, 
which  would  be  412  grains  to  the  dollar  and  would 
contain  93.318  grains  of  pure  silver  to  the  quarter  or 
373.272  grains  to  the  dollar. 

In  later  times  Spanish  coinage  suffered  some  con- 
fusion as  in  the  coinage  of  five  pesetas  to  the  dollar  (in 
imitation  of  the  French  franc)  under  Joseph  Bonaparte 
and  others  and  also  more  debasement  crept  in  partic- 
ularly among  minor  coins. 

These  old  uniform  quarters  were  strongly  marked 
"pillar"  or  the  sign  of  old  Castile  quarters,  and  the  dol- 
lars also,  and  they  got  a  good  reputation  throughout 
the  world  and  were  brought  into  prominence  'as  being 
de  burn  a  Icy,  that  is,  up  to  the  mark  in  fineness,  and 
most  of  them  extant  in  revolutionan  times  were  coined 
under  Charles  III,  of  the  big  nose. 

The  first  American  silver  dollar  was,  by  the  law  of 
1792,  to  be  of  the  value  of  a  "Spanish-milled  dollar,  as 
the  same  is  now  current.'' 

Alexander  Hamilton,  a  native  of  Jamaica,  \V.  L,  and 
the  son  of  a  French  mother  and  British  father,  spoke 
French  fluently  and  easily  (and  probably  Spanish  as 
well),  was  quick  at  figures,  acquainted  with  foreign 
trade,  and  had,  for  the  times  at  least,  a  "masterly  skill 
in  bullion  and  coin/'  and  was  consequently  of  the  ad- 
visors in  the  matter  of  the  new  dollar  and  mint  of  the 
United  States. 


186  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

Hamilton  "found"  that  the  Spanish  dollar  contained 
371.25  grains  of  pure  silver  to  the  dollar,  by,  it  is  said, 
taking  twenty  very  much  worn  Spanish  coins  and  as- 
saying them  and  taking  the  average.  Hamilton  must 
have  selected  very  much  worn  Spanish  quarters,  for  he 
could  not  have  given  the  Spanish  coins  or  money  a  fair 
showing  and  at  the  same  time  obtain  such  a  result. 

We  are  inclined  to  think  that  he  was  very  much  as- 
sisted in  his  search  by  the  fact  that  3/1.25  is  divisible 
by  15,  giving  as  a  result  24.75  and  24.75  is  divisible  by 
II,  giving  2.25,  which,  added  to  24.75,  makes  27,  which 
was  TV  of  his  eagle  of  270  grains,  \ ?  fine,  and  contain- 
ing 247.5  grains  of  pure  gold  and  "  equal  in  value  to 
10  units  or  dollars."  371.25  is  divisible  by  II,  giving 
as  a  result  33.75,  which,  added  to  it,  gives  405,  which 
was  the  weight  in  grains  of  the  dollar  recommended  by 
Hamilton.  For  Hamilton  recommended  that  the  sil- 
ver dollar  should  contain  371.25  grains  of  pure  silver, 
should  be  U  fine,  and  should  weigh  405  grains. 

The  act  of  1792  changed  this  somewhat,  for  though 
it  adopted  his  eagle  of  270  grains  jj  fine  to  be  of  "the 
value  of  10  dollars  or  units"  and  made  ^  eagles  and 
|  eagles  accordingly,  "the  dollar  or  unit  of  silver" 
was  made  to  vveigh  416  grains  and  to  contain  371.25 
grains  of  silver,  halves,  quarters,  clismes,  and  half- 
dismes,  were  made  accordingly.  (Dismes  is  from  law 
French,  meaning  tenth,  like  decime,  same  as  dime.) 

Our  childlike  fathers  could  not  bear  to  see  the  new 
dollar  so  much  smaller  than  the  Spanish  dollar  of  415 
to  417  grains,  so  they  made  their  dollar  to  weigh  416 
grains,  which  was  an  average  and  rounder  number, 
divisible  by  2  and  also  by  4,  therefore  the  first  great 
American  silver  dollar  was  a  corruption  and  debase- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICAN   MONEY.  187 

ment  of  the  oid  Spanish  dollar  which  it  drove  off  the 
American  market.  Worn  Spanish  quarters,  etc.,  how- 
ever, still  remained. 

This  law  of  1792  had  a  clause  in  it  explicitly  stating 
that  i  pound  of  gold  should  be  worth  15  pounds  of 
silver. 

In  1834  the  eagle  was  changed  to  258  grains,  gold 
contents  232  grains,  other  gold  coins  accordingly. 

This  changed  the  ratio  between  the  gold  and  silver 
contents  of  the  dollar  coins  to  i62f2,  but  the  ratio  be- 
tween their  gross  weights  was  now  i6,:i--s  when  before 
the  ratio  between  their  gross  weights  had  been  isU- 

In  1837  there  was  a  second  change,  the  eagle  was 
made  to  weigh  25.8  grains  .900  fine,  gold  contents  23.22 
grains;  at  the  same  time  the  silver  dollar  was  made  to 
weigh  412.5  grains  .900  fine,  silver  contents  371.25 
grains,  which  was  the  same  silver  it  had  before,  for  the 
fineness  was  changed  but  not  the  silver  contents,  or 
the  government  took  out  some  copper  but  did  not 
change  the  silver. 

Since  1837  the  fineness  both  of  the  gold  and  of  the 
silver  coinage  oi  the  United  States  has  been  the  same, 
that  is,  900  thousandths,  and  the  gross  weight  of  the 
silver  dollar  as  it  comes  from  the  mint,  bears  the  same 
proportion  to  the  gross  weight  of  the  gold  dollar  as 
the  weight  of  the  pure  silver  contents  of  the  silver  dol- 
lar bears  to  the  weight  of  the  pure  gold  contents  of  the 
gold  dollar;  that  is,  412.5  bears  the  same  proportion  to 
25.8  as  371.25  bears  to  23.22.  This  proportion  ex- 
pressed decimally  is  about  15.988  to  i,  or  exactly  it  is 
the  proportion  that  15  £  $  bears  to  i.  This  is  the  "ratio 
of  1 6  to  i"  of  American  politics,  meaning  the  ratio  or 
relationship  of  the  weight  of  the  silver  dollar  coin  of 


188  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

the  United  States  as  compared  to  the  weight  of  the 
gold  dollar.  The  '"bimetallists"  of  the  United  States 
would  have  this  to  be  the  relationship  of  the  value  of 
any  weight  of  gold  as  compared  to  the  value  of  an 
equal  weight  of  silver,  so  that  the  value  of  the  bullion 
of  a  United  States  silver  dollar  coin  should  be  equal  to 
the  value  of  the  gold  dollar  of  the  United  States.  That 
is,  they  urge  that  the  government  should  "fix"  at  "16 
to  i"  the  value  of  any  weight  of  gold  as  compared  to 
the  value  of  the  same  weight  of  silver,  which  is  the  ratio 
of  "16  to  i''  so  vociferously  and  unscientifically  de- 
manded by  the  "bimetallists"  of  the  United  States. 

They  are  like  children  crying  for  the  moor;,  and 
though  they  clearly  see  the  iniquity  of  the  gold  stand- 
ard and  will  be  the  means  of  saving  the  country  and  the 
world,  still  they  have  not  generally  been  made  ac- 
quainted with  the  logical  weakness  of  the  16  to  i  posi- 
tion. It  is  here  that  lies  the  great  "bog  where  armies 
whole  have  sunk."  Nevertheless,  their  position  in  the 
matter  of  logic  is  stronger  than  that  of  the  gold  stand- 
ardists,  and  far  better  in  many  other  directions. 
Wherefore  (in  our  opinion),  it  is  the  duty  of  men  to 
work  like  beavers  until  election,  and  then  to  cast  their 
votes  solid  and  unscratched  against  the  present  ad- 
ministration, which  is  inclined  to  usurpation,  despot- 
ism, and  monopoly. 

The  gold  coinage  has  not  been  changed  since  1837, 
but  its  character  in  1873  was  changed  inasmuch  as  in 
that  year  silver  money  was  cut  off  and  gold  selected  as 
the  only  standard. 

The  Act  oi  1834  entitled,  "An  act  concerning  the 
gold  coins  of  the  United  States  and  for  other  purposes," 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICAN    MONEY.  189 

changes  the  weight  of  the  gold  coins,  says  nothing 
about  ratio  although  that  is  to  be  understood,  and  pro- 
vides for  the  redemption  of  the  older  gold  coins. 

The  Act  of  1837  entitled,  "An  act  supplementary  to 
an  act  entitled,  An  act  establishing  a  mint  and  regulat- 
ing the  coins  of  the  United  States,"  changes  the  gold 
coinage  slightly  and  the  fineness  of  the  silver  dollar,  but 
not  its  silver  contents.  This  act  provides  that  gold 
coins  shall  be  legal  tender  for  all  sums  from  $2.50  (the 
smallest  gold  coin)  up,  and  that  silver  coins  shall  be  a 
legal  tender  for  all  sums  whatsoever.  So  this  repeats 
bimetallism  and  the  weight  of  the  silver  dollar. 

The  Act  of  1853  is  entitled,  "An  act  amendatory  of 
existing  laws,  relative  to  the  half  dollar,  quarter  dollar, 
dime,  and  half  dime/'  provides  that  the  weight  of  the 
half  dollar  shall  be  192  grains  .900  fine  and  others  pro- 
portionate, and  that  these  silver  coins  shall  be  legal  ten- 
der in  payment  of  all  sums  not  exceeding  five  dollars, 
and  that  "no  deposits  of  bullion  for  coinage  into  the 
half  dollar,  quarter  dollar,  etc.,  shall  be  received  other 
than  those  made  by  the  treasurer  of  the  mint  as  herein 
authorized  and  upon  account  of  the  United  States." 
This  last  shows  that  these  were  token  coins,  and  that 
the  old  silver  dollar  retained  its  power  which  was  taken 
from  it  by  the  Act  of  1873. 

The  Act  of  1853  authorized  the  coinage  of  the  $3 
gold  piece,  and  on  March  3,  1849,  was  authorized  the 
coinage  of  the  double  eagle  or  $20  piece  and  also  of 
the  gold  $i  piece.  The  $3  piece  was  adorned  with  the 
head  of  an  Indian  warrior  in  full  dress.  Between  the 
lines,  this  Act  betrays  a  disposition  to  demonetize  sil- 
ver. The  idea  was  to  "protect"  the  product  of  the 
American  gold  mines. 


190  i'ALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

The  Act  of  1873  entitled,  "An  Act  revising  and 
amending  the  laws  relative  to  the  mints,  assay  offices, 
and  coinage  of  the  United  States,"  in  section  14  pro- 
vided "that  the  gold  coins  of  the  United  States  shall 
be  a  $i  piece,  which,  at  the  standard  weight  of  25.8 
grains,  shall  be  the  unit  of  value  (that  is,  its  value  shall 
be  the  unit  of  value  or  it  should  be  the  money  unit; 
this  is  the  demonetization  clause  that  cost  the  republic 
so  dearly  in  labor);  a  quarter-eagle,  or  $2^  piece:  a  $3 
piece;  a  half-eagle,  ov  $5  piece;  an  eagle,  or  $10- piece; 
and  a  double  eagle;  which  coins  shall  be  a  legal  tender 
in  all  payments  at  their  nominal  value  when  not  below 
the  standard  weight  and  limit  of  tolerance  provided  in 
this  Act,"  etc. 

The  section  concerning  silver  looks  tricky.  It  is 
section  16  and  provides  "that  the  silver  coins  of  the 
United  States  shall  be  a  trade  dollar,  a  half  dollar,  or 
50-cent  piece;  a  quarter-dollar,  or  25-cent  piece;  a  dime, 
or  lo-cent  piece;  and  the  weight  of  the  trade  dollar  shall 
be  420  grains  troy,  the  weight  of  the  half  dollar  shall 
be  12  grains  and  one-half  a  grain;  the  quarter  dollar  and 
the  dime  shall  be  respectively  1-2  and  1-5  the  weight  of 
said  half  dollar;  and  said  coins  shall  be  a  legal  tender  at 
their  nominal  value  for  any  amount  not  exceeding  five 
dollars  in  any  one  payment.*' 

It  is  to  be  seen  that  by  this  law  the  bulwark  in  favor 
of  'the  people  of  the  old  silver  dollar  was  swept  away, 
and  this  blood-sucking  ghost  of  debt  and  interest  al- 
lowed to  come  nearer  to  the  hearts  and  hearths  of  the 
people. 

By  the  Act  of  May  3,  1887,  the  trade  dollars  were 
called  in  and  "all  laws  and  parts  of  law  authorizing  the 
coinage  and  issuance  of  United  States  trade  dollars  are 
hereby  repealed." 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    MONEY.  191 

On  February  28,  1878,  Congress  passed  a  law  for  the 
coinage  of  what  it  was  pleased  to  call  "a  standard  silver 
dollar,"  but  which  was,  in  fact,  but  a  token  coin  for  gold. 
These  are  the  every-day  ''buzzard  dollars."  The  act  is 
entitled,  "An  act  to  authorize  the  standard  silver  dol- 
lar, and  to  restore  its  legal  tender  character."  It  pro- 
vides "that  there  shall  be  coined  at  the  several  mints 
of  the  United  States  silver  dollars  of  the  weight  of 
412.5  grains  troy  of  standard  silver  as  provided  in  the 
Act  of  January,  1837,  on  which  shall  be  the  devices  and 
superscriptions  provided  by  said  Act;  which  coins  to- 
gether with  all  silver  dollars  heretofore  coined  by  the 
United  States  of  like  weight  and  fineness,  shall  be  a 
legal  tender  at  their  nominal  value  for  all  debts  and  dues 
public  and  private  except  when  otherwise  expressly 
stipulated  in  the  contract." 

This  repudiates  the  old  silver  dollar  pieces  coined  be- 
fore 1873  under  undoubted  bimetallism.  This  law 
says  nothing  about  the  la\v  of  1873,  and  if  these  silver 
dollars  were  not  sustained  we  would  have  dropped  to 
a  silver  basis,  which  is  what  the  bimetallists  of  the 
United  States  wanted  and  what  would  have  been  all 
right  had  it  not  been  retroactive.  For  instance,  if  in- 
stead of  the  clause  "except  where  otherwise  stipulated 
in  the  contract/'  it  had  said  "to  be  contracted  in  the 
future,"  then  we  would  have  gone  immediately  to  a 
silver  money  or  "basis,"  and  the  silver  dollar  would 
have  become  the  "money  unit." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  at  least  to  my  mind,  every  con- 
tract since  1873  where  dollars  is  mentioned  must  be 
gold,  for  in  the  Act  of  1873,  tne  dollar  is  explicitly  the 
gold  dollar.  The  value  of  the  gold  dollar  was  conse- 
quently the  unit  of  value  or  the  "value  dollar,"  and  the 


192  ITALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

United  States  was  morally  bound  to  make  all  legal 
tenders  metallic  or  papyric  as  "good"  as  this.  An 
honorable  nation  does  not  need  to  be  more  than 
morally  bound. 

However,  to  secure  the  silver  dollar  in  its  token 
character  and  the  gold  dollar  in  its  sovereignty  and  to 
ease  the  minds  of  men  as  to  the  status  of  the  coinage 
and  money  of  the  United  States,  the  Act  of  November 
i,  1893,  was  passed,  entitled,  "An  Act  to  repeal  a  part 
of  an  Act  approved  July  14,  1890,  entitled,  An  Act  di- 
recting the  purchase  of  silver  bullion  and  the  issue  of 
treasury  notes  thereon  and  for  other  purposes,"  which 
says,  "And  it  is  hereby  declared  to  be  the  policy  of  the 
United  States  to  continue  the  use  of  both  gold  and  sil- 
ver as  standard  money,  and  to  coin  both  gold  and  silver 
into  money  of  equal  exchangeable  and  intrinsic  value, 
such  equality  to  be  secured  through  international 
agreement  or  by  such  safeguards  of  legislation  as  will 
secure  the  maintenance  in  the  parity  of  value  of  the 
coins  of  the  two  metals  and  the  equal  power  of  every 
dollar  at  all  times  in  the  markets  and  in  the  payment  of 
debts.  And  it  is  hereby  further  declared  that  the  ef- 
forts of  the  government  should  be  steadily  directed  to 
the  establishment  of  such  a  safe  system  of  Bimetallism 
as  will  maintain  at  all  times  the  equal  power  of  every 
dollar  coined  or  issued  in  the  United  States  in  the  mar- 
kets, or  in  the  payment  of  debts." 

The  clause  "in  the  markets"  shows  that  the  silver 
dollar  and  the  gold  dollar  must  be  kept  at  equal  ex- 
change in  trade,  which  can  only  be  done  by  redemption 
through  acceptance  for  dues  to  the  government  as 
taxes,  revenue,  etc.,  or  in  case  of  excess,  by  gold  coin. 

The  last  sentence  beginning,  "And  it  is  further  de- 


HISTORY   OP   AMERICAN   MONEY.  193 

clared,"  can  be  construed  as  giving  the  president 
power  to  purchase  or  rather  borrow  gold  for  redemp- 
tion, as  was  done  (properly  it  seems  to  me)  by  Presi- 
dent Cleveland. 

This  law  kept  us  on  the  dearer  standard.  It  is  bi- 
metallism where  the  government  is  responsible,  for  in- 
stance, if  silver  should  rise  so  that  the  silver  dollar 
should  be  by  weight  more  valuable  than  a  gold  dollar, 
then  under  this  law  the  man  with  gold  could  demand 
silver  dollars  of  the  government  in  exchange  for  gold 
dollars. 

Altogether  the  law  was  a  juggling  melange  with  its 
curious  methods  of  expression  like  ''intrinsic  and  ex- 
changeable," "such  a  safe  system  of  bimetallism,"  etc., 
nevertheless  it  makes  clear  the  duty  of  the  government 
with  respect  to  all  its  coins  and  paper. 

The  next  law  is  the  Act  of  1900,  which  confirms  the 
gold  standard  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt.  It 
was  passed  March  14,  and  is  entitled,  "An  Act  to  de- 
fine and  fix  the  standard  of  value,  to  maintain  the  par- 
ity of  all  forms  of  money  issued  or  coined  by  the  United 
States,  and  for  other  purposes,"  and  provides  "that 
the  dollar  consisting  of  25.8  grains  of  gold  9-10  fine, 
established  by  section  3511  (practically  Article  14  of 
the  Coinage  Law,  of  1873),  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of 
the  United  States,  shall  be  the  standard  unit  of  value, 
and  all  forms  ot  money  issued  or  coined  by  the  United 
States  shall  be  maintained  at  a  parity  of  value  with  this 
standard,  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  maintain  such  parity."  This  is  a  great 
benefit  to  opponents  of  the  gold  standard,  as  it  will  pre- 
vent silver  men  from  shooting  backwards,  and  puts  the 
issue  where  direct  war  may  be  made  upon  this  heresy 
13 


194  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

of  the  gold  standard,  this  craze  of  place  worshipers,  the 
folly  of  the  fin  de  siecle  1900. 

All  silver  dollar  pieces  coined  since  1837,  whether 
standard  or  token,  have  been  .900  fine  and  contained 
371.25  grains  of  pure  silver.  The  half  dollars  up  to 
1853  were  just  half  the  whole  dollars,  and  so  propor- 
tionately with  the  other  minor  coins. 

In  1853  the  first  token  silver  was  coined.  The  half 
dollar  of  1853  weighed  192  grains,  so  that  two  half 
dollars  weighed  384  grains  gross,  they  were  .900  fine, 
and  two  half  dollars  contained  345.6  grains  of  pure 
silver  or  one  half  dollar  172.8  grains  of  pure  silver. 

The  half  dollar  of  since  1873  is  9-10  fine,  and  weighs 
192.9  grains,  or  two  half  dollars  weigh  25  grammes  or 
385.6  grains,  which  is  the  weight  of  the  French  5 -franc 
silver  piece,  and  contains  4^  grammes  of  pure  silver 
or  347.22  grains  pure  silver,  and  the  half  dollar  half  of 
this.  The  "nickels/'  or  5-cent  token  United  States 
coins  are  of  an  alloy  }  copper  and  -J  nickel.  The 
bronze  pieces  are  95  per  cent  copper  and  5  per  cent  tin 
and  zinc  "in  such  proportion  as  may  be  determined  by 
the  director  of  the  mint."  Two  silver  half  dollars  are 
25  grammes  or  385.808  grains  of  silver,  .900  fine,  and 
weigh  very  nearly  935  thousandths  as  much  as  the  sil- 
ver full  dollar,  or  the  "buzzard"  dollar  of  to-day;  divide 
385.808  by  412.5.  The  5-franc  silver  piece  of  France 
and  various  other  silver  pieces  of  South  America  and 
other  countries  weigh  25  grammes.  There  are  99 
ounces  of  fine  silver  in  128  "buzzard"  dollars  of  412.5 
grammes  .900  fine. 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 
Money  Coinages  and  Weights  of  the  World. 

Sometimes  in  this  chapter  we  will  use  the  signs  Au., 
Ag.  and  Cu.  being  the  chemical  symbols  for  gold,  silver 
and  copper,  or  Aurum,  Argentum  and  Cuprum,  and  they 
always  mean  chemically  pure  gold,  silver  or  copper,  or 
what  in  the  case  of  gold  is  called  "fine  gold;"  of  course 
there  can,  truly  speaking,  be  no  gold  but  fine  gold. 
Looseness  of  thought  or  expression  in  this  regard  leads 
to  some  confusion,  for  instance  the  money  of  the  U.  S. 
is  said  to  be  gold  .900  fine  in  gold  and  the  rest  copper. 
Now  as  a  matter  of  very  accurate  statement  the  money 
of  the  U.  S.  is  not  gold  but  is  an  alloy  of  gold  and  cop- 
per, but  the  word  gold  is  applied  everywhere  in  England 
or  America  or  wherever  English  is  spoken,  to  any  con- 
ceivable alloy  high  in  gold,  and  to  be  clear  we  say  that 
a  certain  gold  is  so  many  thousandths  fine,  for  instance 
U.  S.  coin  gold  is  fo  gold  and  is  therefore  .900  fine, 
the  rest,  or  .100,  is  copper. 

j3ut  suppose  that  we  should  say,  the  money  of  the 
U.  S.  is  gold  .900  Au.  .100  Cu.  it  would  be  short  and 
clear,  and  this  is  the  system  we  shall  pursue  in  some 
cases  at  least  in  this  chapter. 

The  data  for  most  of  this  chapter  was  compiled  from 
the  Statesman's  Year  Book  for  JQOO  published  by 
McMillan  &  Company,  London,  and  from  the  very 

(195) 


196  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

excellent  work  entitled  '''The  World's  Metal  Monetary 
Systems,"  by  John  Henry  Norman,  member  of  the  Lon- 
don Chamber  of  Commerce,  published  by  G.  P.  Put- 
nam's Sons,  New  York,  and  in  London  by  Sampson 
Low  Marston  &  Co.,  price  $2.00. 


EUROPE. 

SCANDINAVIAN    UNION. 
Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark  and  Iceland. 

By  a  treaty  signed  May  27,  1873,  with  additional 
treaty  signed  October  16,  1875,  Sweden,  Norway,  and 
Denmark  (Iceland  is  a  dependency  of  Denmark) 
adopted  the  same  monetary  system.  The  Swedish 
Krona  and  Norwegian  and  Danish  Krone  (Crown) 
each  worth  is.  i|d.  sterling  or  about  18  kroner  to  the 
pound  sterling,  U.  S.  Treasury,  $0.268,  is  the  money 
unit. 

The  money  is  of  gold  .900  Au. 

In  Sweden,  national  bank-notes  for  5,  10,  50,  100, 
and  1,000  kroners  are  legal  means  of  payment  and  the 
bank  is  bound  to  exchange  them  for  gold  on  presenta- 
tion. The  case  is  the  same  in  Norway,  where  there  are 
also  notes  for  500  kroner. 

The  Scandinavian  Crown  weighs — 

Gross  Fineness  Au. 

grammes      .44803  .900  -4032.2 

grains         6.9141  6.22275 

The  gold  2O-kroner  piece  of  8.960572  grammes  .900 
Au.  contains  8.0645  grammes  or  124.454  grains  Au. 


MONEY    COINAGES   AND    WEIGHTS.  197 

The  silver  krona  weighs  7.5  grammes  .800  Ag.  and 
contains  therefore  6  grammes  of  Ag.  Of  silver  coins 
there  are  2,  I,  J,  f,  J,  and  fo  crowns  and  for  smaller 
denominations  there  are  bronze  coins.  One  kilo- 
gram or  15,432.34874  grains  of  An.  is  used  to  make 
248  lo-crown  pieces  or  124  2O-crown  pieces  or  in  fact 
2,480  crowns.  The  charge  for  coining  2O-crown  pieces 
is  J  per  cent  and  for  lo-crown  pieces  J  per  cent.  Toler- 
ance i£  to  2  per  mille. 

The  Danish  national  bank  ordinarily  buys  Au.  at 
2,480  crowns  per  kilo,  less  1-4  per  cent. 

Gold  and  silver  are  bought  and  sold  by  the  Danish 
mark  of  8  unsers  or  16  lods  or  256  orts,  equal  to  235.294 
grammes  or  3,631.139  grains  troy.  The  above  is  the 
monetary  system  of  Faroe  Islands,  Greenland,  Iceland, 
St.  Croix,  St.  John  and  St.  Thomas. 

The  Swedish  skalpund  of  100  ort  equals  .937  pounds 
avoirdupois.  The  metric  system  is  obligatory  in  Nor- 
way and  Sweden.  In  Denmark  the  pund  is  equal  to 
i,coo  kvint,  100  ort  or  1.1023  pounds  avoirdupois;  the 
centner  is  equal  to  110.23  pounds  av. 

HOLLAND. 

Gold  standard.  The  standard  money  unit  is  the 
florin,  otherwise  known  as  the  guilder;  100  cents  is 
equal  to  i  florin.  The  standard  gold  coin  is  the  gold 
lo-florin  piece,  weighing  6.720  grammes  .900  fine  and 
thus  containing  6.048  grammes  of  Au. 

A  5-florin  gold  piece  is  also  coined,  and  silver 
token,  2-J,  I,  j,  jo,  and  -fa  florin  pieces,  and  bronze  ^,  I,  and 
2\  cents.  This  is  the  currency  of  the  Dutch  possessions 
of  Guiana  and  Curacoa,  of  Java  and  all  the  Dutch  East 


198  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

Indies  and  colonies  generally.  In  Holland  the  metric 
system  is  general  though  sometimes  with  slight  modi- 
fications. A  florin  is  taken  officially  in  the  U.  S.  at 
$0.402,  in  England  at  is.  8d.,  or  12  guilders  to  the 
pound. 

The  2^  gulden  or  guilder  or  florin  is  called  rijks- 
daalder,  J  guilder  kwartje,  TV  guilder  dubbeltje,  and  fa 
stuivertje. 

RUSSIA. 

The  Bank  of  Russia  acts  in  double  capacity,  of  state 
bank  and  of  commercial  bank,  and  has  108  branches, 
and  silver  currency  has  at  times  been  "depreciated,"  or 
below  par.  In  1897  she  began  the  coinage  of  pieces 
worth  not  10  but  15  silver  roubles.  The  recoinage  of 
gold  in  1897  was  165,889,550  roubles,  165,242,140  rou- 
bles of  this  was  of  old  Russian  gold  coin.  The  rouble 
is  taken  officially  in  England  at  9.47  roubles  to  the 
pound  sterling.  As  the  rouble  is  worth  2s.  i/^d.,  it 
leaves  about  2  pence  per  pound  in  favor  of  the  British 
account.  At  the  U.  S.  custom  house  the  rouble  is 
tariffed  at  $0.515  and  the  Russian  imperial  at  $7.718, 
which  is  about  6  cents  under  its  true  value. 

The  above  are  calculations  for  the  true  modern  rou- 
ble of  to-day,  in  fact  the  rouble,  but  this  is  not  the  same 
as  the  rouble  of  a  few  years  ago. 

The  gold  coins  of  Russia  are  the  imperial  and  half 
imperial  of  10  and  5  roubles.  The  half  imperial  weighs 
6.544041  grammes,  \%  fine,  containing  5.998704  grammes 
of  fine  gold.  Its  value  in  paper  roubles  for  the 
year  1896  was  settled  at  7.72  roubles,  and  15.45  rou- 
bles for  the  imperial.  The  above  is  the  old  imperial 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  199 

which  is  going  out  of  vogue  and  will  be  eventually  re- 
tired altogether. 

The  New  Imperial  weighs  12.902  grammes,  .900  fine, 
and  consequently  contains  11.6118  grains  of  fine  gold. 
Its  value  was  settled  by  the  Ministry  of  Finance  for  the 
year  1896  at  15  roubles  for  the  imperial,  and  7.50  rou- 
bles for  the  half  imperial.  This  was  at  par  or  at  the 
nominal  value  of  the  silver  rouble. 

(The  ratio  between  gold  and  currency  above  is  appar- 
ently i  1-2,  for  the  above  pieces  are  marked  10  and  5 
rouble  pieces,  but  they  are  really  15  and  7.5  roubles  of 
the  new  system.) 

According  to  new  laws  of  Jan.  3  (15)  and  Aug.  2 
(Sept.  10),  1897,  new  gold  coins  of  exactly  the  same 
weight,  value,  and  dimension  as  the  above  will  hence- 
forward be  coined  bearing  the  inscription  15  roubles  and 
7.5  roubles  on  the  imperial  and  half  imperial,  respec- 
tively, and  5  roubles  on  a  new  gold  coin  of  the  same 
proportion,  and  paper  money  can  at  any  time  be  ex- 
changed at  its  nominal  value  against  these  coins.  That 
is,  Russia  as  regards  these  coins  has  come  to  a  ''specie 
basis"  like  the  LI.  S. 

It  will  be  seen  that  15  roubles  of  the  new  coinage  is 
not  quite  so  much  gold  as  10  roubles  of  the  old  coinage, 
although  the  coins  are  called  imperials. 

It  amounts  to  the  fact  that  Russia  has  changed 
her  rouble  in  1897.  It  is  now  positively  the  TV  of  her 
new  imperial.  All  these  things  have  tended  to  confuse 
the  subject  very  much.  Within  a  short  time  Russia 
will  have  retired  all  her  old  gold  coinage  and  her 
wrongly  marked  imperials  and  confusion  will  disap- 
pear. 

It  is  only  recently  (1897)  that  Russia  finally  decided 


200  ITALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

to  adopt  the  gold  standard,  a  serious  mistake  on  her 
part  for  otherwise  she  would  have  been- in  better  touch 
with  the  Chinese  trade.  A  promise  of  the  silver  stand- 
ard with  a  strong  backing  from  Russia  would  tempt  the 
inhabitants  of  British  India  to  revolt,  for  these  starving 
people  are  taxed  to  death  to  pay  the  interest  on  a 
British  haut  finance  gold  debt.  If  Russia  had  directly 
and  unmistakably  adopted  a  silver  money  she  would  be 
a  far  more  dangerous  rival  to  British  interests  in  the 
far  east  than  she  now  is.  It  probably  would  have  made 
her  invincible  in  Asia. 

There  is  also  a  new  silver  coinage  in  Russia.  The 
old  silver  rouble  weighed  20.7315  grammes,  .86806 
fine,  and  the  new  silver  rouble  weighs  19.9957  grammes, 
.900  fine.  Besides  the  silver  rouble  there  are  legal  ten- 
der notes  of  loo,  25,  10,  5,  3,  and  i  rouble. 

i  pound  is  equal  to  96  zolotnik,  or  32  lot,  or  .90283 
Ibs.  avoirdupois. 

i  pood  is  equal  to  40  pounds,  about  36  pounds  avoir- 
dupois. 

63  poods  equal  i  ton. 

GERMAN  EMPIRE. 

Money,  gold,  .900  Au.  and  .100  Cu.  The  unit  of 
money  is  the  mark  of  100  pfennige,  weighing  0.3982475 
grammes  and  containing  .3584205  grammes  of  pure 
gold  or  Au.  Gold  coins  are  20,  10  and  5  mark  pieces, 
called  respectively,  doppel  krone,  krone,  and  halb 
krone.  The  2O-mark  piece  weighs  7.96495  grammes, 
.900  fine,  and  contains,  consequently,  7.16846  grammes 
of  Au.  The  mark  is  taken  by  the  treasury  in  England 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  201 

at  njd.,  or  20.43    marks    to  the   pound    sterling,  and 
by  the  U.  S.  Treasury  at  $0.238. 

Silver  coins  are  5,  2,  and  i  mark,  and  50  and  20 
pfennige  pieces. 

Nickel  coins  are  10  and  5  pfennige  and  there  are 
bronze  coins  for  smaller  denominations.  Old  thalers 
are  still  legal  tender,  but  other  silver  only  up  to  20 
marks.  The  thaler  is  3  marks.  The  metric  system  of 
weights  and  measures  obtains  in  Germany.  A  2O-mark 
piece  weighs  122.918  grains,  an  American  $5  piece 
weighs  129  grains. 

Since  the  formation  of  the  German  Empire  the  term 
mark  has  been  applied  to  the  standard  unit  of  the  im- 
perial monetary  system,  the  value  being  fixed  by  the 
enactment  that  139.5  lo-mark  pieces  or  69.75  20- 
mark  pieces  shall  be  coined  from  L  German  or  Zollver- 
ein  (customs)  pound  or  pfund  (being  500  grammes  or 
a  half  kilogram)  of  fine  gold  or  Au.,  or  what  is  more  to 
the  point,  125.55  lo-mark  pieces  are  coined  from  i 
pfund  of  standard  gold,  or  there  are  1,255.5  marks  in  a 
pfund  of  German  money.  At  i  mark  per  pfund  1,255.5 
pfunds  of  anything  could  be  bought  for  I  pfund  of  Ger- 
man money  or  such  is  the  ratio  and  relative  value  at  that 
price;  at  T  pfennige  125,550  pfunds  could  be  bought, 
which  is  the  ratio  at  that  price  and  from  here  a  table 
of  relative  value  for  all  prices  in  pfenniges  per  pfund 
could  be  easily  constructed.  A  mark  has  the  weight 
ot  $0.238213  of  the  money  of  the  U.  S.  Coinage 
charge  is  3  marks  per  pfund  of  pure  gold.  Tolerance, 
2.5  mille  on  20  and  lo-mark  pieces  and  4  mille  on  5- 
mark  pieces,  gold  and  silver  sold  by  the  kilog  of  pure 
metal. 


202  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

12SSSQ 


-+ 


This  illustrates  German  prices  (money  included)  in  pfenniges  per 
pfund. 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  203 

Graphic  Representation  of  German  Money. 

As  there  are  125,550  pfenniges  in  a  pfund  of  German 
money,  we  have  in  the  accompanying  diagram  placed 
the  price  of  a  pfund  of  German  money  at  the  height 
125,550  above  the  zero  level,  so  that  the  height  of  each 
little  quadrangle  represents  i  pfennige  per  pfund,  each 
perpendicular  line  represents  some  time,  say  12  M.,  in 
each  day,  and  in  this  diagram  there  are  3 1  of  these,  rep- 
resenting a  month  of  31  days.  German  money  would 
be  represented  by  the  horizontal  level  line  at  the  height 
125,550  for  the  whole  month,  or  forever;  for  the  price 
of  German  (or  any  other)  money  never  changes,  and 
German  money  is  distinguished  by  the  heavy  black  line 
at  the  top  of  this  particular  diagram.  We  have  also 
represented  a  commodity  having  the  price  of  5  pfen- 
niges per  pfund  on  the  ist  to  the  5th,  rising  to  8  from 
the  9th  to  the  I5th,  rising  to  9  on  the  2Oth  and  falling 
to  6  pfenniges  per  pfund  on  the  3ist. 

FINLAND. 

The  money  is  gold  .900  An.,  the  money  unit  is  the 
markka  of  100  penni  of  exactly  the  weight  and  com- 
position as  the  franc. 

Gold  coins  are  20  and  10  markka  pieces.  There  are 
silver  token  coins  for  2,  i,  -J,  and  £  markka.  Copper 
coins  are  10,  5,  and  i  penni  pieces. 

The  paper  currency  is  exchangeable  at  par  against 


gold. 


THE  BRITISH   ISLES. 


The   standard  money   is    gold,   H   Au.f   TV   Cu.      The 
pound    sterling    weighing    123.274    grains    or    7.9881 


204  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE   OF    VALUE. 

grammes  and  therefore  containing  113.001  grains  or 
7.3224  grammes  of  Au.,  is  the  money  unit.  When 
coined  this  piece  is  usually  called  a  sovereign. 

4   farthings    i    penny,  12    pence  I    shilling,  20    shil- 
lings i  pound  sterling  or  sovereign. 

The  silver  token  shilling  weighs  87.27  grains,  or 
5.6552  grammes  .925,  or  f-J  Ag.,  and  thus  contains 
80.727  grains  or  5.231  grammes  of  Ag.  or  pure  silver. 
Bronze  coins  consist  of  a  mixture  of  copper,  tin,  and 
zinc.  Silver  is  legal  tender  up  to  40  shillings,  bronze 
up  to  12  pence,  but  farthings  only  up  to  6  pence.  Be- 
side the  English  shilling,  is  the  English  florin  or  2- 
shilling  piece  and  the  English  crown  (a  coin  stamped 
with  a  crown),  or  5-shilling  piece,  and  the  half  crown  or 
21-2  shillings,  the  English  6  pence  and  3  pence,  and 
there  are  also  of  silver  4  pence,  2  pence,  and  i  penny 
pieces,  all  of  the  same  composition  as  the  shilling  and  of 
proportional  weight.  Some  of  these  are  practically  not 
in  circulation  but  are  used  as  "Maunday"  or  "Maundy" 
money — on  Maundy  Thursday,  the  day  before  good 
Friday,  when  it  was  formerly  the  custom  for  the  kings 
or  queens  of  England  to  wash  the  feet  of  as  many  poor 
men  as  they  were  years  old,  and  afterwards  give  them 
meat  and  clothes.  This  ceremony  is  now  obsolete  but 
on  Maundy  Thursday  the  royal  almoner  (almsgiver) 
distributes  to  each  of  as  many  poor  men  and  women  as 
the  sovereign  is  years  old,  certain  silver  coins,  called 
Maundy  money,  consisting  of  a  4-penny  piece,  a 
3-penny,  a  2-penny,  and  a  i -penny  piece  each  of  sil- 
ver. The  name  is  derived  from  the  anthem  that  was 
sung  during  the  ceremony,  which  began  with  the  words 
mandatum  novum  (a  new  commandment)  John  13:34, 


MO:iEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  205 

the  idea  being  that  the  washing  of  the  feet  was  a 
fulfilling  of  this  command. 

During  the  ceremony  was  sung  the  anthem  "A  new 
commandment  I  give  unto  you  that  ye  love  one 
another."  As  it  began  \vith  the  Latin  word  mandatum, 
the  day  was  called  Maundy  Thursday. 

(Lingard,  "History  and  Antiquity  of  the  A.  S. 
Church.") 

By  supreme  British  law  an  ounce  troy  contains  £3 
i/s.  lojd.  of  British  standard  gold,  which  is  {J  gold  and 
A  copper. 

Also  by  the  same  it  is  distinctly  stated  that  20  pounds 
01  British  standard  gold  shall  be  made  into  ''nine 
hundred  and  thirty-four  sovereigns  and  one-half  sover- 
eign." 

20  pounds  troy  is  just  240  ounces  trov  and  as  240 
pennies  make  a  pound  sterling,  it  may  be  seen  that  the 
two  enactments  are  the  same.  What  would  be  pennies 
in  one  case  must  be  sovereigns  in  the  other,  or  an 
ounce  contains  934^!.  sterling,  so  that  the  two  enact- 
ments are  the  same. 

E.  A.  Nicholson,  M.  A.,  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
in  a  book  called  "Our  Coinage  and  Present  Monetary 
System,"  says: — 

4 'Since  1816  gold  has  been  chosen  as  the  standard  of 
value  in  Great  Britain,  and  much  care  is  taken  to  secure 
a  proper  gold  coinage.  Any  one  may  bring  gold  to  the 
mint  to  be  coined  provided  it  be  not  less  than  ten  thou- 
sand pounds  in  value,  and  that  it  has  first  been  assayed 
by  the  mint  assayer  and  obtained  his  certificate,  and 
the  mint  is  bound  to  return  in  coin  to  the  last  grain 
exactly  the  weight  of  the  standard  metal  which  it  has 
received,  without  any  charge  being  made  to  the  bearer. 


206  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

Since  1837  no  private  individuals  have  availed  them- 
selves of  this  privilege  and  the  Bank  of  England  alone 
sends  gold  to  the  mint  to  be  coined.  The  bank  buys 
gold  with  its  own  notes,  but  will  buy  none  which  has 
not  been  previously  assayed  at  the  expense  of  the  seller, 
by  one  of  the  six  assayers  employed  by  itself.  It  gives 
£3  175.  pd.  per  troy  ounce  for  all  the  standard  gold 
brought  to  it  for  sale,  whatever  be  the  quantity,  reserv- 
ing i|-d.  on  each  ounce  of  £3  173.  io-Jd.,  which  is 
the  exact  legal  price  at  the  mint.  [That  is,  the  British 
Government  of  itself  coins  gold  free  of  charge,  but  the 
company  of  the  Bank  of  England  have  practically  the 
monopoly  of  the  offer  of  the  gold  to  the  mint  through 
the  10,000  pound,  and  the  select  assayer  rule,  etc.,  and 
get  a  small  commission  amounting  to  0.032  per  cent, 
or  about  1-3  of  i  per  cent  on  the  operation. — G.  R.] 
Previous  to  purchasing,  the  bank  requires  bullion  to 
be  melted  by  one  of  certain  firms,  at  present  four  in 
number.  These  melters  run  the  gold  into  ingots  or 
'bank  bars/  uniform  in  size,  and  each  containing  200 
troy  ounces.  Branded  with  distinctive  marks  and  fig- 
ures the  bars  are  deposited  at  the  bank  bullion  office, 
and  if  the  triple  assay  by  one  of  the  bank's  assayers 
shows  them  to  contain  not  less  than  21  out  of  24  parts 
of  fine  gold  they  are  purchased.  The  bank  does  not 
buy  metals  under  21  carats  fine.  What  is  called  the 
mint  price  is  merely  a  declaration  of  the  weight  of  metal 
of  a  fixed  purity  which  the  law  recognizes  to  be  in  our 
gold  coin;  it  ought  to  be  called  the  mint  division  (mint 
weight)  rather  than  the  mint  price.  For  instance,  40 
pounds  troy  of  22  carat  gold  is  by  law  divided  into  1,869 
ingots  of  a  certain  shape,  which  we  call  sovereigns; 
whatever  be  the  value  of  the  gold,  whether  it  rises  or 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  207 

whether  it  falls,  the  number  of  sovereigns  into  which 
this  particular  weight  of  standard  gold  is  divided  will 
remain  the  same  and  it  makes  no  difference  whether  the 
royal  mint  which  performs  the  division  is  at  Sydney  or 
in  London." 

The  bank  is  not  bound  to  return  coin  for  bullion  in 
less  than  20  days. 

The  English  reckon  the  fineness  of  gold  and  silver 
by  "carats"  (practically  twenty-fourths).  Pure  gold  is 
24  carats  fine,  English  coin  gold  is  22  carats  or  .37 
fine.  AY  hen  the  word  "carat"  is  used  in  the  weight  of 
gems  it  means  4  grains.  A  diamond  of  4  carats  is  a 
diamond  of  1 6  grains.  However,  the  Turkish  and 
Arabian  karat  or  carat  of  4  grains  differs  (being  some- 
what less)  from  an  English  or  U.  S.  carat,  as  their  grain 
differs  from  an  English  grain.  So  that  a  diamond  in 
the  east  ot  4  carats  does  not  weigh  what  a  diamond  in 
the  United  States  or  England  of  4  carats  does.  The 
Turkish  karat  is  the  same  as  the  Arabian. 

"Sterling  O.  E.  sterlinge,  starling,  for  easterling,  low 
Latin  esterlingus,  probably  from  easterling,  once  the 
popular  name  for  German  traders  in  England,  whose 
money  was  of  the  purest  quality."  (Webster's  Diction- 
ary.) 

"Certain  merchants  of  Norwaie  and  others,  those 
partes  called  Ostomanni,  or  (as  in  our  vulgar  language 
w^e  tearme  them)  easterlings  because  they  lie  east  in 
respect  of  us/'  (Holinshed.) 

;'In  the  time  of  K.  Richard  the  First,  monie  coined 
in  the  East  partes  of  Germanic  began  to  be  of  special 
request  in  England  for  the  puritie  thereof  and  was  called 
Easterling  Monie  as  all  the  inhabitants  of  those  parts 
were  called  Easterlings  and  shortly  some  of  that  coun- 


208  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    7 ALOE. 

trie,  skillful  in  mint  manners  and  allaes  (alloys),  were 
sent  into  this  realme  to  bring  the  coine  to  perfection, 
which  since  that  time  was  called  of  them  sterling  for 
Easterling."  (Camden.) 

"A  term  applied  to  English  money  of  account,  sig- 
nifying that  it  is  of  the  fixed  or  standard  national 
value"  (composition).  (Encyc.  Die.) 

"Sterling"  practically  means  English  money  as  so 
many  pounds  shillings  or  pence  sterling. 

English  money  all  over  the  world  is  considered  to  be 
of  carefully  protected  quality.  Uncoined  gold  of  the 
proper  purity  to  be  coined  into  British  gold  coins  is 
sterling  gold.  From  this  word  are  derived  such  expres- 
sions as  "a  man  of  sterling  integrity,"  "a  work  of  ster- 
ling merit,"  "sterling  virtues,"  etc. 

Guinea,  Sovereign,  Pound,  and  Shilling. 

The  guinea,  a  coin  so  called  from  the  Guinea  gold 
out  of  which  it  was  first  made,  was  proclaimed  in  1663 
to  go  for  20  shillings,  but  it  never  went  for  less  than 
21  shillings  and  has  not  been  coined  since  the  issue  of 
sovereigns  in  1817,  when  England  adopted  her  present 
system  of  coinage  or  formally  chose  the  standard,  which 
act  was  followed  by  most  dreadful  "hard  times"  in  the 
British  Isles.  The  guinea  was  first  coined  in  1664  and 
originally  bore  the  impression  of  an  elephant.  Its 
value  varied  considerably  at  different  periods,  but  was 
latterly  fixed  at  21  shillings.  It  is  still  customary  in 
Great  Britain  to  estimate  professional  fees,  honoraria  of 
all  kinds,  complimentary  subscriptions,  prices  of  pic- 
tures, etc.,  in  guineas;  to  give  a  physician  three  sover- 
eigns and  three  shillings  rather  than  three  sovereigns 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  209 

alone,  or  even  three  sovereigns  and  five  shillings,  is  sup- 
posed to  make  the  transaction  differ  from  a  mere  mer- 
cantile one  and  thus  veils  the  sordidness  which  is  fan- 
cied to  attach  to  pounds,  shillings  and  pence.  The 
sovereign  is  the  English  standard  gold  coin  of  20  shil- 
lings or  i  pound  sterling  (i  pound  sterling  is  the  weight 
of  standard  gold,  and  sovereign  the  name  of  the  same 
after  being  coined  by  the  British  mint).  The  name 
was,  first  applied  to  a  gold  coin  issued  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Eighth,  otherwise  called  the  double  royal, 
on  which  the  king  was  represented  in  royal  robes;  the 
name  disappeared  after  a  few  years  and  was  revived  as 
applicable  to  the  gold  pieces  of  to-day  first  issued  in 
1817.  (Int.  Encyc.,  et  al.) 

The  name  pound  is  derived  from  the  fact  that  in  the 
time  of  the  conqueror  one  Tower  pound  of  silver  was 
coined  into  240  silver  pence,  whence  the  tower  penny- 
weight at  that  time  was  really  the  weight  of  a  penny. 
Now  an  English  silver  shilling  weighs  87  ,:!,  grains,  or  66 
shillings  go  to  the  troy  pound  of  silver,  J-J  Ag. 

Hall  Mark. 

In  England  an  official  mark  put  upon  articles  of  gold 
and  silver  as  an  evidence  of  genuineness,  so  called  from 
Goldsmiths  Hall  in  London,  the  seat  of  the  Goldsmiths 
Company,  by  whom  the  stamping  is  legally  regulated. 
It  consists  of  various  marks  placed  close  together,  as 
follows:  (i)  The  mark  indicating  the  standard  (for  sil- 
ver of  the  new  standard  it  is  a  figure  of  Britannia  and  a 
lion's  head  erased;  "erased"  in  heraldry  means  torn  off 
or  jagged  as  distinct  from  "couped"  or  cut  off  smooth); 
(2)  the  mark  of  the  assay  town,  as  a  crown  for  Sheffield, 
or  an  anchor  for  Birmingham;  (3)  a  mark  denoting  that 


210 


VALICS,    OR    THE   SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 


the  duty  has  been  paid;  (4)  the  date  mark,  consisting  of 
a  letter  of  the  alphabet  for  each  year,  in  series  of 
differing  styles  or  designs;  (5)  the  maker's  mark,  usu- 
ally two  or  more  initial  letters;  (6)  the  workman's  mark, 
which  is  not  always  present.  (Gen.  Die.) 


ii 


English  and  American  Money  Compared. 

The  accompanying  diagram  represents  12  bars  of 
metal,  all  of  equal  weight.  The  top  bar,  marked  i,  is 
copper  and  the  rest  are  gold. 

The  specific  gravity  of  gold  is  about  2.15  as  great  as 
that  of  copper,  so  that  a  copper  bar  of  equal  weight  with 
a  gold  one  should  be  about  2.15  as  voluminous. 

If  we  take  all  these  12  bars  and  melt  them  or  boil 
them  into  bullion  ( French  bouillon)  we  would  have 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  211 

exactly  the  same  thing  in  composition  as  English 
standard  coin  gold,  sterling  gold,  or  English  money, 
and  it  would  be  j4  Au.  and  TV  Cu. 

If,  instead  of  taking  all,  we  should  take  the  first  10 
bars  from  the  top  and  proceed  in  the  same  manner,  we 
would  have  bullion  of  the  same  composition  as  Amer- 
ican "standard  gold,"  U.  S.  gold  coin,  or  U.  S.  money, 
which  is  exactly  the  same  in  composition  as  the  money 
of  France,  Germany,  and  many  other  countries. 

To  1 08  parts  (equal  parts  by  weight,  as,  for  instance, 
avoirdupois  pounds)  of  English  money,  add  2  parts  of 
Cu.  and  boil  to  make  no  parts  of  American  standard 
gold,  the  same  in  composition  as  American  money.  To 
1 20  parts  of  American  standard  gold,  add  24  parts  of 
Au.,  or  pure  gold,  to  make  144  parts  of  sterling  gold, 
the  same  thing  in  composition  as  English  gold  coin  or 
English  money.  In  every  60  parts  of  English  money, 
there  is  i  part  more  Au.  than  in  60  parts  of  American 
money.  In  55  parts,  as,  for  instance,  pounds  avoirdu- 
pois of  American  money,  there  is  the  same  quantity  of 
Au.  that  there  is  in  54  pounds  avoirdupois  of  English 
money,  which  is  49.5  pounds  Au.,  or  in  other  words 
iV  of  55  is  the  same  as  |J  of  54.  Bullion  and  "funds" 
mean  about  the  same  thing;  fundir  in  Spanish  means 
to  melt;  a  smelter  or  a  foundry  is  called  a  fundicion. 
Our  word  foundry  means  a  place  of  melting  or 
founding.  A  man  in  old  times  who  had  plenty  of 
chunks  of  the  right  sort  of  junk,  was  well  supplied  with 
funds;  the  same  is  true  yet. 

Graphic  Representation  of  British  Money. 

There  are  13,628  1-8  pennies  in  a  pound  avoirdupois 
of  British  money.     In  the  accompanying  diagram  these 


212  }TALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE   OF    VALUE. 


1 3628  . 


1TE 


4- 


2  , 


Illustrating  prices  in  England  where  13,628^  pence  per  avoirdupois 
pound  is  the  invariable  price  of  British  money. 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  213 

penny  divisions  are  marked  i,  2,  3,  up  to  13,628,  and 
13,628^  is  also  marked,  which  is  the  straight  line  rep- 
resenting the  price  of  British  money,  which  of  necessity 
must  always  bear  that  price  in  pennies  per  avoirdupois 
pound,  and  therefore  is  always  level,  and  we  have  drawn 
it  heavy  in  the  diagram  to  distinguish  it.  The  pennies 
are  divided  into  eighths  or  half  farthings,  making  each 
little  rectangular  space  one-eighth  of  a  penny  or  a  half 
farthing  high.  The  diagram  represents  one  month  of 
31  days,  see  Graphic  Representation  of  American 
Money.  We  have  on  the  diagram  represented  a  price 
of  i  penny  per  avoirdupois  pound  on  the  first  day  of  the 
month,  i-j  on  the  fiftn,  i-J-  on  the  tenth  continuous 
without  fluctuating  until  the  twenty-fifth  and  falling  to 
i  1  on  the  thirl :\ -first.  This  gives  the  price  of  this  (im- 
aginary) commodity  during  this  time,  or  it  compares 
the  value  per  avoirdupois  pound  of  this  commodity, 
with  the  value  per  avoirdupois  pound  of  sterling  money 
for  the  same  time,  showing  that  price  in  all  things  sold 
by  weight  is  simply  a  statement  of  their  relative  value  as 
compared  with  the  relative  value  of  money. 

FRANCS. 

Money  is  gold  .900  An.  .100  Cu.  The  money  unit  is 
the  gold  franc  weighing  ten  thirty-firsts,  or  J"  of  a 
gramme,  and  is  not  coined  as  a  single  piece. 

The  franc  is  tariffed  by  the  British  Government,  at 
\)\(\.  or  25.225  francs  to  the  pound  sterling,  and  by 
the  U.  S.  Treasury  at  $0.193.  Gold  coins  in  common 
use  are  the  20  and  lo-franc  pieces.  The  2O-franc  gold 
piece  weighs  6.4516  grammes,  .900  fine,  and  thus  con- 
tains 5.80645  grammes  of  Au.  Silver  coins  are  5,  2,  i, 


214  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

and  -J-franc  ])ieces  and  2O-centime  pieces.  Bronze 
coins  are  10,  5,  i,  -.J,  £,  ^-centime  pieces.  There  is 
"theoretically,''  as  it  is  sometimes  said,  but  in  reality 
pretendedly  or  falsely,  a  double  standard  of  value  in 
France,  the  ratio  being  15^  to  i,  which  is  the  ratio  by 
weight  between  the  silver  franc  and  the  gold  franc  in 
French  coinage.  Of  silver  coins  only  5-franc  pieces  are 
legal  tender  and  of  these  the  free  coinage  has  been  sus- 
pended since  1876.  The  present  monetary  convention 
between  France,  Belgium,  Italy,  Switzerland,  and 
Greece  is  tacitly  continued  from  year  to  year,  but  may 
be  denounced  by  any  of  the  contracting  states,  and  if 
denounced  will  expire  at  the  end  of  the  year,  which  be- 
gins the  first  of  January  following  the  denunciation. 
According  to  it?  terms,  the  five  contracting  states  have 
their  gold  and  silver  coins  respectively  of  the  same 
fineness,  weight,  diameter,  and  current  value,  and  the 
allowance  for  wear  and  tear  in  each  case  is  the  same. 
The  coinage  of  5-franc  pieces  is  temporarily  suspended, 
and  the  issue  of  subsidiary  silver  is,  with  certain  excep- 
tions for  special  reasons,  limited  to  7  francs  a  head  for 
the  population  of  each  state  (but  6  francs  for  Greece). 
Each  government  in  its  public  offices  accepts  payments 
in  the  silver  5-franc  piece  of  each  of  the  others,  and  in 
subsidiary  silver  to  the  amount  of  100  francs  for  each 
payment.  Each  state  engages  to  exchange  the  excess 
of  its  issue  over  its  receipts  of  subsidiary  silver  for  gold 
or  5-franc  silver  pieces,  and  at  the  termination  of  the 
convention  each  is  bound  to  resume  also  its  5-franc 
silver  pieces,  and  to  pay  in  gold  a  sum  equal  to  the  nom- 
inal value  of  the  coin  resumed.  (But  see  also  under 
Italy.) 

The  following   numbers,  expressed  in  millions,  show 


?IONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  215 

the  total  issues  of  token  silver  of  the  five  states  author- 
ized by  the  convention  of  1897:  France,  394  francs; 
Italy,  232.4  lire;  Belgium,  46.8  francs;  Switzerland,  28 
francs;  Greece,  15  drachmas.  This  convention  is  called 
'The  Latin  Union.'' 

As  a  franc  is  £°  of  a  gramme,  a  kilo  of  French 
gold  would  be  3,100  francs,  so  that  at  i  franc  per  kilo 
the  ratio  would  be  3,100  between  gold  and  anything  ' 
at  a  franc  a  kilo;  at  i  centime  per  kilo  the  ratio  would 
be  310,000,  and  from  this  a  table  of  relative  value  may 
be  constructed. 

One  kilogram  of  gold  -j  %•  fine  is  coined  into  3,100 
francs;  one  kilo  of  fine  gold  is  used  in  making  3,444.49 
francs.  The  "remedy"  is  a  thousandth  for  weight  and 
a  five-hundredth  for  fineness  on  20  and  lo-franc  pieces, 
and  on  5-franc  pieces  a  three-thousandth  for  weight  and 
a  five-hundredth  for  fineness.  The  mint  buys  gold 
bars  of  .900  fineness  at  3,093.30  francs  per  kilo,  mak- 
ing the  mintage  charge  6.70  francs  per  kilo. 

In  France  in  1803  the  legal  relation  of  silver  to  gold 
iixed  at  15^  under  bimetallism,  and  continued  to 
1876,  when  France  demonetized  silver,  or  the  right  of 
private  individuals  to  have  silver  coined  for  them  was 
taken  nway  and  only  the  5-franc  piece  continued  to  be 
legal  tender  to  all  amounts,  the  others  being  legal  ten- 
der up  to  50  francs. 

The  word  franc  is  derived  from  the  Latin  Francus, 
a  Frank,  one  of  the  people  who  were  called  Franks. 
The  coin  at  first  bearing  the  Latin  inscription  Fran- 
corum  y.V.r,  king  of  the  Franks,  and  is  the  unit  of  ac- 
count in  the  monetary  system  of  France  or  the  unit 
weight  for  the  money  of  France.  The  franc  is  divided 
into  10  decimes.  100  centimes;  the  denomination  decime 
has  fallen  into  popular  disuse,  but  the  old  division  into 


216  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE   OF    VALUE. 


61999 


This  illustrates  French  prices  of  commodities  (money  included)  in 
sous  per  kilo.  The  price  of  French  money  is  always  62 ,000  sous  per 
kilo. 


MONEY    COINAGES   AND    WEIGHTS.  i_>17 

twenty  sous  of  five  centimes  each  is  still  in  common 
use.  The  2O-franc  pieces  are  commonly  but  not  legally 
called  Napoleons.  The  copper  coins  are  of  ten  cen- 
times, stamped  dix  centimes  but  called  2  sous,  5  cen- 
times called  i  sou,  and  a  very  pretty  but  rather  useless 
little  piece  of  i  centime,  which  is  hardly  seen  except 
at  the  post-ofTices.  In  the  first  contrast  of  the  Latin 
Union  a  franc  was  called  .3225806  grammes,  which  is 
the  same  as  \{\  of  a  gramme. 

(ii'djthic  Representation  of  Frenrh  Money. 

\Ve  have  shown  that  in  a  kilogram  of  French  money 
there  are  3,100  francs  or  310,000  centimes,  but  as 
among  the  people  in  common  conversation  the  denom- 
ination decime  is  in  disuse,  and  they  are  accustomed 
in  the  markets  and  everywhere  to  using  the  word  sou, 
a  sou  being  5  centimes,  or  about  i  American  cent,  or 
there  are  20  sous  to  the  franc  or  62,000  sous  to  the 
kilo,  therefore,  in  our  table  French  money  is  divided 
into  sous,  and  we  have  divided  the  sous  into  tenths 
and  the  diagram  is  marked  i,  2,  3,  etc.,  up  to  62,000 
sous,  which  is  the  straight  level  line  representing  the 
price  of  French  money  which  is  always  <>_\ooo  sous  per 
kilogram.  (See  the  chapter  on  Graphic  Representa- 
tion of  United  States  Money.)  In  the  accompanying 
diagram  we  have  started  at  the  beginning  of  the  month 
with  a  commodity  selling  at  i  sou  per  kilo  from  the 
1st  to  the  5th,  rising  to  i-]  sous  per  kilo  on  the  loth, 
continuing  at  that  price  to  the  25th  and  falling  to  r  | 
sous  on  the  3ist. 

The  legal  monetary  unit  of  France  before  the  intro- 
duction of  the  present  franc,  in  1/95,  was  the  livre 
tournois  (of  Tours).  It  was  slightly  less  in  value  than 


218  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

the  coin  by  which  it  was  superseded,  81   livres  being 
equal  to  So  francs. 

ITALY. 

The  money  weights  and  measures  are  the  same  as 
those  of  France.  The  lire  and  centesimo  are  the  same 
in  weight  and  quality  as  the  franc  and  centime.  By 
a  protocol  of  March  15,  1898,  of  the  convention  of  the 
Latin  Union,  Italy  is  freed  from  the  obligation,  created 
by  the  convention  of  1885,  to  take  back  its  fractional 
coins  within  a  year  following  the  dissolution  of  the 
union,  on  condition  of  forbidding  the  exportation  of 
such  coins  while  the  union  continues,  and  undertak- 
ing not  to  change  its  present  system  with  respect  to 
such  coins  during  live  years  following  the  dissolution 
of  the  union.  A  law  of  February  16  and  July  19  au- 
thorize the  issue  of  2-lire  and  i-lire  silver  coins  on  the 
withdrawal  of  buoni  di  cassa  (one  and  two-lire  notes 
guaranteed  by  silver  in  the  treasury)  to  a  correspond- 
ing amount. 

BELGIUM. 

Money,  etc.,  same  as  France;  franc  called  a  pranc. 
GREECE. 

Same  as  France.  Drachma  of  100  lepta;  100  new 
drachma  equal  112  old  drachma. 

In  September,  1898,  it  was  decided  to  introduce  the 
metric  system  as  regards  measures  of  length,  weight, 
and  capacity.  The  change  from  the  old  system  is  to 
be  gradual.  The  old  system  is: — 

The  Oke  ==  2.80  Ibs.  av. 

Cantar  ==  123.20   "      " 

Livre  =  1.05          "      " 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  219 

SPAIN, 

Gold  standard.  The  peseta  is  exactly  the  same  in 
weight  and  composition  as  the  franc;  it  is  divided  into 
100  centesimos  or  centimes. 

The  common  gold  coins  are  20,  10,  and  5-peseta 
pieces.  Silver  coins  are  5-peseta  and  single-peseta 
pieces.  Both  gold  and  silver  coins  correspond  exactly 
in  weight  and  fineness  to  the  French  coinage.  Pop- 
ularly the  5-peseta  piece  is  sometimes  called  a  peso. 

In  January,  1859,  the  metric  system  was  introduced, 
but  the  old  denominations  are  largely  used. 

Quintal,  101.4  Ibs.  av.:  libra,  1.014  Ibs.  av.  The 
arroba,  25  libras,  and  for  wine  3^  imperial  gallons; 
fanega,  i^  imperial  bushels. 

SWITZERLAND. 

Money  unit  the  franc  of  10  batzen  and  100  rappen 
or  centimes,  exactly  the  same  as  the  French  franc  in 
weight  and  composition.  Switzerland  belongs  to  the 
Latin  Union.  The  pfund  of  500  grammes  is  the  chief 
unit  of  weight.  The  centner  of  100  pfund  or  50  kilo- 
grams is  about  110.2  pounds  av.  The  people  usually 
divide  the  pfund  into  halves  and  quarters,  named  halb- 
pfund  and  viertelpfund. 

BULGARIA. 

Coinage  same  as  France;  the  leva  corresponds  to  the 
franc,  and  is  divided  into  100  stotinki. 

There  are  a  few  Bulgarian  coins  of  100,  40,  20,  and 
10  leva  (francs)  but  the  gold  circulation  is  supplied  by 
foreign  10  and  2O-franc  pieces. 

Eastern  Rumelia,  now  called  Southern  Bulgaria,  is 


220  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

governed  by  the  prince  of  Bulgaria,  and  is  practically 
annexed, — has  same  coinage. 

Bulgaria  is  a  state  practically  free  though  nominally 
tributary  to  Turkey. 

ROUMANIA. 

The  decimal  system  was  introduced  in  1876.  The 
unit  of  money  is  the  leu,  plural  lei,  the  same  as  the 
franc  in  composition  and  weight,  and  throughout  the 
monetary  system  is  like  that  of  France.  The  metric 
system  has  been  introduced,  but  Turkish  weights  are 
used  to  some  extent  by  the  people. 

8ERVIA. 

The  system  of  money  and  coinage  corresponds  to 
the  French. 

The  dinar  of  100  paras  is  the  same  in  weight  as  the 
French  franc. 

Gold  coins  of  10  and  20  dinar  are  in  circulation. 

The  2O-dinar  piece  is  called  a  Milan  d'or,  and  there 
are  silver  "5,  2,  i,  and  half-dinar  coins  and  smaller  de- 
nominations of  nickel  and  bronze. 

This  system  of  coinage  was  adopted  in  1875,  and  the 
metric  system  of  weights  and  measures  has  been  in 
practical  use  since  1883. 

PORTUGAL. 

The  standard  is  gold,  \^  or  .91 66^"  fine.  The  money 
unit  is  the  milreis,  weighing  gross  1.7735  grammes  or 
27.3965  grains,  containing  of  pure  gold  1.62571 
grammes  or  25.0885  grains. 

The  milreis  is  received  at  the  United  States  custom 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  221 

house  at  $1.08.  Larger  sums  are  expressed  in  contos 
of  1,000  milreis.  Gold  coins  are  10,  5,  2,  and  i-milreis 
pieces,  called  coroa,  meia  coroa,  etc.  Coroa  (crown). 
Silver  coins  are  10,  5,  2,  i,  and  half-testoon  (testao) 
pieces,  or  1,000,  500,  200,  100,  and  co-reis  pieces.  The 
5-testoon  (or  5oo-reis)  pieces  weigh  12.5  grammes, 
11-12  fine,  and  contain  11.4580  grammes  fine  silver. 
Bronze  coins  are  40,  20,  10,  and  5  reis.  The  English 
sovereign  is  legal  tender  for  4.5  reis.  In  the  present 
derangement  of  the  finances,  Bank  of  Portugal  paper 
is  chiefly  in  circulation.  The  metric  system  of  weights 
and  measures  is  the  legal  standard.  8,000  reis  is  called 
a  peca,  and  4,000  a  meia  peca.  The  name  peca  is  a 
re] ic  of  the  coinage  of  old  Roman  times.  The  coinage 
charge  on  gold  is  i  milreis  per  kilogram,  which  is  a 
trifle  more  than  one-fifth  per  cent.  The  mint  buys 
gold  }^  fine  at  563.856  milreis  per  kilogram,  which 
is  milreis  615.115  per  kilogram  of  fine  gold.  The 
metric  system  is  the  legal  standard,  though  the  libra  of 
1.012  av.  pounds  or  500  kilos  is  in  use.  Milreis  means 
1,000  reis;  testao,  100  reis. 

A  USTPJA-HUNGARY. 

By  law  of  August  2,  1892,  the  monetary  system  of 
Austria-Hungary  was  reformed  on  a  gold  basis  .900 
fine  gold,  .100  copper.  The  money  unit  is  the  krone 
or  krona  (crown),  weighing  .33875335  grammes,  and 
containing  .304878015  grammes  fine  gold. 

The  2O-crown  piece  weighs  6.77067  grammes,  and 
thus  contains  6.09756  grammes  of  fine  gold;  besides 
this  are  the  lo-crown  piece,  which  is  one-half  of  the 
above,  and  also  the  single  ducat  piece  of  the  old  coin- 
age, which  is  9  crowns  60  heller  (filler  in  Hungarian). 


222  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

The  2O-crown  piece  and  10- crown  piece  are  officially 
rated  in  England  at  i6s.  Sd.  and  8s.  4d.,  and  the  ducat 
at  8s.  The  crown  is  officially  rated  in  the  United 
States  at  $.203.  The  old  gold  coinage  in  the  United 
States  is  rated  4  florins,  §1.929;  8  florins,  $3.858;  ducat, 
$2.287;  and  four  ducats,  $9.149. 

Gold,  present  system,  is  rated  at  20  crowns,  $4.052, 
and  10  crowns,  $2.026. 

The  crown  is  divided  into  100  heller  (filler). 

In  the  silver  coinage  the  old  gulden  florin  (or  for- 
int)  is  worth  two  of  the  new  silver  crowns,  and  the 
2O-heller  (filler)  piece  is  worth  10  kreutzer  (krajczar) 
of  the  old  coinage,  or  about  2d.,  or  United  States  4 
cents.  The  lo-filler  piece  is  worth  5  kreutzer  of  old 
coinage,  about  2  cents.  Of  bronze  are  the  2-filler  (or 
2-heller)  piece,  being  I  kreutzer,  about  f  of  a  cent;  and  the 
single  heller  about  |  of  a  cent. 

Silver  gulden  or  florins  continue  to  be  legal  tender 
to  any  amount.  Silver  crown  pieces  are  accepted  to 
any  amount  at  government  offices,  but  in  general  cir- 
culation they  are  legal  tender  only  up  to  50  crowns. 
The  notes  of  the  state  bank  are  legal  tender. 

The  metric  system  is  now  obligatory  in  Austria- 
Hungary.  The  old  weights  were  the  centner  of  100 
pfund,  equal  to  56.06  kilo  or  123.5  ^s-  av- 

MONTENEGRO. 

Montenegro  has  no  coinage  of  its  own — Austrian 
paper  principally  current.  Turkish  silver  is  also  cur- 
rent, and  French  and  English  gold  circulates  freely  at 
a  rate  of  exchange  fixed  from  time  to  time  by  the  gov- 
ernment. There  is  no  bank  of  any  kind  in  the  country. 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  223 

TURKEY. 

Gold  standard  11-12  or  .916665^- fine.  The  money 
unit  is  the  Turkish  pound  or  lira,  and  40  paras  make  I 
piastre,  100  piastres  i  pound  or  lira,  which  weighs 
7.216  grammes  or  111.3598  grains,  containing  pure 
gold  6.6147  grammes  or  102.0804  grains. 

The  Turkish  pound,  lira,  or  gold  mecljiclie,  is  taken 
in  England  at  i8s.  0.064  pence,  and  the  piastre  at  2.16 
pence.  In  the  United  States  customs  the  piastre  is 
taken  at  $0.044;  nra>  ?4-4O.  (This  piastre  must  not  be 
confounded  with  the  French  name  for  a  peso  of  Spain 
or  America,  nnd  a  name  often  popularly  given  to  their 
own  5-iranc  piece.) 

Large  accounts  are  frequently,  as  in  budget  esti- 
mates, set  down  in  "purses"  of  500  medjidie  piastres,  or 
5  Turkish  liras. 

Common  measures  are  the  oke  of  400  Turkish  drains, 
or  2.8326  Ibs.  av.;  44  okes  make  i  kantar  or  kin- 
tal, 125  Ibs.  av. 

In  1882  the  Turkish  weights  were  assimilated  to  the 
metric  system,  but  under  old  names  leading  to  much 
confusion.  An  oke  equals  I  kilogram;  batman  10 
kilograms;  cantar,  TOO  kilograms;  tcheki,  1,000  kilo- 
grams. In  1889  the  metric  system  of  weights  was 
made  obligatory  for  cereals,  and  in  1892  the  metric 
weights  were  decreed  generally  obligatory,  but  the  de- 
cree is  not  yet  enforced. 

The  medjidie  is  one,  the  zarin  one-half,  the  tyeirek 
one-fourth  pound.  These  are  gold  coins.  Silver  coins 
are  20,  10,  5,  2.5,  2,  and  i  piastre.  Bronze  coins  are 
10,  5,  i,  J,  and  £  para.  The  Turkish  grain  is  .77224  troy 
grains;  4  grains  make  i  carat;  16  carats,  I  dram;  400 
drams,  i  oke. 


224  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

ASIA. 

SIBERIA, 

Same  as  Russia. 

MANCHURIA   AND   MONGOLIA. 

Same  as  China. 

KOREA. 

The  legal  currency  is  the  copper  cash,  together  with 
the  newly-minted  silver  dollar,  silver  2O-cent  piece, 
nickel  5-cent.  copper  5-cash,  brass  i-cash.  The 
amount  of  the  new  coinage  in  circulation  is,  however, 
totally  inadequate,  and  is  supplemented  by  the  Japa- 
nese yen,  which  has  recently  become  practically  the 
currency  of  the  country.  The  adoption  of  a  gold 
standard  in  Japan  has  caused  much  confusion  in  Korea. 
(Stateman's  Y.  B.) 

JAPAN. 

The  present  monetary  law  came  into  force  in  Octo- 
ber, 1897,  by  which  the  gold  standard  .900  gold,  .100 
copper,  was  adopted.  The  money  unit  is  the  \en, 
weighing  |  of  a  gramme  or  .83333  grammes  of  gold, 
and  containing  0.75  gramme  or  £$  of  a  gramme  of  pure 
gold  and  TV  of  a  gram  pure  copper. 

Twelve  hundred  yen  are  coined  from  one  kilo  of 
standard  .900  fine  gold,  and  the  gold  pieces  are  20,  10, 
and  5  yen.  The  silver  pieces  are  50,  20,  and  10  sen, 
nickel,  a  5  sen.  and  bronze  i  and  J  sen.  The  silver  coins 
are  .800  fine.  The  gold  coins  formerly  issued,  20,  10, 
5,  2,  and  I  yen,  are  used  at  double  their  face  value. 

The  i -yen  silver  coin  formerly  issued  is  withdrawn. 
The  old  silver  5-sen  and  copper  2,  i,  and  ^-sen  pieces 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  225 

are  used  at  their  nominal  or  face  rating,  that  is,  as 
modern  sens.  Paper  currency  of  various  denomina- 
tions is  in  general  use,  and  is  now  at  par  with  gold. 
The  metric  system  is  adopted,  and  the  metre  equals 
3.3  shaku;  I  gram  equals  -fs  or  0.26667  momniee. 

CHINA. 

The  sole  official  coinage  of  China  is  the  copper  cash 
of  which  T, 600  to  1,700  make  i  haikwan  or  customs  tael, 
which  is  a  weight  of  pure  silver  of  I J  avoirdupois  ounces, 
or  5^3j  grains  is  equal  to  1.214  troy  ounces,  and 
which  is  the  fixed  or  only  true  Hang  or  tael  whose 
weight  is  fixed  all  over  ihe  empire,  and  is  probably  in 
truth  the  money  unit.  It  was  worth  in  October,  1898, 
according  to  the  otiicial  declaration  of  the  United 
States,  $0.71  S;  of  course  it  varies  with  the  price  of 
silver.  Pure  silver  is,  in  reality,  the  money  of  China. 

The  copper  purchasable  for  a  tael  of  silver  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  1898  sufficient  to  make  token  coins  repre- 
senting a  tael  of  silver  cost  the  government  1.354  taels, 
and  this  appreciation  of  copper  has  not  only  restricted 
coinage,  but  led  to  the  melting  down  of  copper  coin. 

The  Hang  or  tael  varies  in  different  places,  but  the 
haikwan  or  customs  tael  does  not  vary,  being  always 
ij  ounces  avoirdupois  of  pure  silver  or  12  taels  pure 
silver  to  the  avoirdupois  pound.  (This  would  not  be  a 
bad  money  unit  for  the  silver  men  of  the  west  to  arbi- 
trarily adopt  in  order  to  break  the  gold  monopolistic 
standard.) 

This  invariability  of  the  customs  or  treasury  tael  of 
the  Chinese  Government  may  have  been  brought  about 
because  the  head  of  the  Imperial  Customs  Department 
15 


226  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

is  a  Briton,  Sir  Robert  Hart,  and  under  him  is  a  large 
staff  of  European,  American,  and  Chinese  subordinates, 
who  collect  the  revenue  of  the  Chinese  foreign  trade 
and  manage  the  lighthouses,  etc.,  on  the  coast  of  China. 
Besides  the  Haikwan  or  customs  tael,  is  the  Shanghai 
tael,  the  Tientsin  tael,  and  the  Chefoo  tael,  tariffed  by 
the  United  States  in  1898  at  $0.645,  $0.684,  and  $0.675 
respectively.  Sycee  silver  or  silver  in  ingots  or  small 
lumps  bearing  the  stamp  of  the  office  that  issues  it  and 
used  it  as  currency  is  much  in  use  in  coinage  from  hand 
to  hand  and  also  Mexican  dollars,  etc.  Large  pay- 
ments are  made  by  weight  of  silver  bullion.  By  an 
imperial  decree  issued  during  1890,  the  silver  dollars 
coined  at  the  new  Canton  Mint  are  made  current  all 
over  the  empire.  We  do  not  know  the  weight  and 
fineness  of  this  coin,  but  it  is  probably  made  with  the 
idea  of  driving  the  Mexican  dollar  from  the  trade. 
Foreign  coins  are  looked  upon  as  bullion,  and  usually 
taken  by  weight  except  at  the  treaty  ports. 

ro  sze  --  i  hu. 

10  hu  ==  i  hao. 

10  hao  =-  i  li  (nominal  cash). 

10  li  ==  i  fun  (candaren). 

10  fun  =  i  tsien  (mace). 

10  tsien  ==  i  liang  (tael). 

1 6  liang  ==  I  kin  (catty). 

100  kin  ==  i  tan  (picul). 

i  liang  =;=  I  ^  oz.  av. 

12  liang  ==  i  pound  av. 

1 6  liang  ==  I  catty,  I  ^  Ibs.  av. 

i  oo  catty  =  =  133^  Ibs.  av. 

I  catty  ==  i  1/3  California  cental. 

1 6  liang  ==  i  catty,  i^  Ibs.  av. 


MONEY    COINAGES   AND    WEIGHTS. 
TURKESTAN. 

Turkestan  is  a  dependency  of  the  Russian  Empire, 
and  East  Turkestan  of  China. 

TIBET. 
Dependency  of  China. 

ARABIA. 

Same  as  Turkey. 

PERSIA. 

The  monetary  unit  is  the  kran,  a  silver  coin  formerly 
28  nakhods  (88  grains),  then  reduced  to  26  nakhods 
(77  grains),  nmv  weighing  only  24  nakhods  (71  grains). 
The  proportion  of  silver  was  before  the  new  coinage 
commenced  (3877),  92  to  95  per  cent,  it  was  then  for 
some  time  90  per  cent;  and  is  now  about  89^  per  cent. 
The  value  of  the  kran  has,  in  consequence,  much  de- 
creased. In  1874  a  kran  had  about  the  value  of  a  franc, 
25  being  equal  to  I  pound  sterling.  In  consequence 
of  the  fall  in  the  price  of  silver,  the  value  of  a  kran  is  at 
present  (September,  1899)  4.8  pence,  a  pound  sterling 
bill  on  London  being  worth  50  krans,  which  was  also 
the  average  exchange  for  1898-99. 

The  silver  coins  are  the  lo-pul,  or  5-shahi  piece,  the 
lo-shahi,  and  the  2O-shahi  (which  is  one  kran),  the  2- 
kran,  and  the  5-kran  piece,  or  the  4O-shahi  and  the 
loo-shahi. 

The  copper  coins  are  the  i-pul,  2-pul  or  i-shahi,  the 
4-pul  or  2-shahi,  and  the  4-shahi  or  i-abassi  piece. 

In  consequence  of  an  excess  of  coinage  by  a  former 
mint  master  copper  coinage  has  greatly  fluctuated  in 


228  rAUCS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

value  since  1896,  and  is  now  circulating  at  less  than  its 
price  as  copper  (owing  to  appreciation  in  the  value  of 
copper  and  depreciation  in  the  value  of  silver),  viz.,  80 
to  83  shahis  (weighing  about  |  pound)  to  one  silver  kran 
worth  4-fd.  or  about  10  cents. 

The  government  has  now  decided  to  introduce  a 
nickel  coinage  instead. 

Gold  coins  are  £,  £,  i,  2,  5,  and  lo-toman  pieces. 
The  toman  is  nominally  worth  10  krans.  Very  few 
gold  pieces  are  in  circulation,  and  a  gold  toman  is  at 
present  worth  16.50  krans  or  6s.  7-^d. 

Accounts  are  reckoned  in  dinars,  an  imaginary  coin, 
the  ten-thousandth  part  of  a  toman  of  10  krans.  A 
kran,  therefore,  is  1,000  dinars:  i  shahi  is  50  dinars. 
(Latin  denarius,  from  which  comes  the  d  of  the  Eng- 
lish penny,  Spanish  dinero  meaning  ready  money  cash, 
or  caja,  or  money  in  the  box.  Cash,  from  French, 
caisse,  cache,  etc.,  Spanish,  caja,  a  box,  etc.,  originally 
meant  money  ready,  or  on  hand,  or  in  the  box,  and  so 
used  in  commercial  accounts.  Cash  and  case  are  lin- 
gual brothers. 

The  unit  of  weight  is  the  miskal  (71  grains);  16 
miskals  make  a  sir,  and  5  sir  an  abassi,  also  called  wak- 
keh  and  kervankeh;  4  gandum  or  0.74  grain  make  i 
nakhod;  2.96  grains  and  24  nakhod  make  i  miskal,  71 
grains. 

Most  articles  are  bought  and  sold  by  a  weight  called 
a  batman  or  man,  an'd  there  are  different  mans  in  vogue. 

AFGHANISTAN. 

The  rupee  appears  to  be  usually  current.  The 
ameer's  mint  at  Kabul  (Kabul  is  also  the  name  for 
•Northern  Afghanistan)  is  now  under  the  supervision  of 


MONEY    COINAGES   AND    WEIGHTS.  229 

an  Englishman.  According  to  official  reports,  the 
smallest  silver  coin  yet  struck  has  been  the  kran,  of  the 
value  of  half  the  Kabul  rupee  (it  is  not  stated  what  the 
Kabul  rupee  is,  and  the  writer  does  not  know),  but  in 
future  there  wilt  be  a  smaller  coin  equivalent  to  a  three- 
pence. In  addition  to  this  there  will  be  a  gold  coin, 
the  same  as  a  sovereign,  and  new  silver  pieces  equal  to 
the  crown  and  half-crown  respectively.  Besides  the 
small  copper  pice  at  present  coined,  of  which  72  are 
reckoned  as  equal  to  one  Kabul  rupee,  a  large  bronze 
coin  of  the  size  of  a  crown  will  be  struck  of  the  nominal 
value  of  about  nvepence. 

BALUi  HI8TAN. 

Same  as  India. 

NIPAL. 

The  silver  mohur  is  valued  at  6  annas  and  8  pies  of 
British  Indian  currency.  Copper  pice,  of  which  50  go 
to  a  silver  mohur,  are  also  coined.  The  Indian  rupee 
passes  current  throughout  Nipal. 

BURMA, 

Same  as  India. 

8IAM. 

The  legal  money  of  Siam  is  the  tical,  a  silver  coin 
weighing  236  grains  .910  fine.  Other  silver  coins  from 
the  Siamese  mint  now  current  are  the  salting  and  the 
fuang,  being  respectively  J  and  -J  tical.  Dollars  are 
accepted  in  payment  at  the  rate  of  3  dollars  for  5  ticals. 

The  tical  or  bat  is  64  atts,  or  60  cents  of  a  Mexican 
dollar. 


230  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

Four  ticals  make  i  tamlung,  and  80  ticals  make  i 
catty;  I  chang  is  2§  pounds  avoirdupois,  and  50  chan^ 
make  I  hap  of  133^  pounds  avoirdupois;  i  chang  is  two 
Chinese  cattys  of  weight. 

ANAM. 
Same  as  Indo  China  (French). 

INDO   CHINA. 

Under  this  designation  are  the  French  dependencies 
of  Cochin  China,  Tonking  Anam,  and  Cambodia,  no 
clear  information  about  the  money,  but  suppose  that 
the  French  gold  system  will  be  imposed  upon  the 
country  in  time.  The  accounts  of  these  countries  are 
reported  in  piasters;  whether  this  is  the  five-franc  piece 
or  the  Mexican  dollar  or  some  special  French  silver 
coin  we  do  not  know,  but  presume  it  must  be  on  a  sil- 
ver "basis"  and  is  the  Mexican  dollar,  as  its  coinage 
never  has  been  mentioned  publicly  as  has  been  that  of 
India  in  this  country. 

INDIA. 

"From  1835  to  June  26,  1893,  the  standard  of  value 
was  the  silver  rupee  (containing  165  grains  of  fine  sil- 
ver and  15  grains  of  alloy),  which  was  freely  coined  for 
the  public.  Down  to  1891-92  gold  was  also  coined  in 
small  quantities  in  the  form  of  mohurs." 

"In  1892-93  the  gold  price  of  silver  fell  below  39 
pence  per  ounce,  and  the  exchange  value  of  the  rupee 
fell  below  is.  3d.  or  I5d." 

"In  view  of  the  increasing  embarrassment  of  the 
finances,  and  the  inconveniences  and  impediment  to 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  231 

trade,  caused  by  the  fluctuations  in  the  rate  of  ex- 
change between  India  and  England,  a  committee  under 
the  presidency  of  the  lord  chancellor,  was  appointed 
to  consider  what  remedial  measures  should  be  adopted." 
"In  accordance  with  the  recommendation  of  this  com- 
mittee, a  bill  providing  for  the  closing  of  the  Indian 
mints  to  the  unrestricted  coinage  of  silver  for  the  pub- 
lic was  introduced  in  the  legislative  council  of  the  gov- 
ernor-general, on  June  26,  1893,  and  passed  into  law 
on  the  same  day  as  Act  VIII,  of  1893.  (How  much 
more  violent  this  than  the  Demonetization  Act  of  the 
United  States!)  Notifications  were  issued  simulta- 
neously providing:  (i)  For  the  receipt  of  gold  coin  and 
gold  bullion  at  the  mint  in  exchange  for  rupees  at  a 
ratio  of  is.  4d.  or  i6d.  per  rupee.  (2)  For  the  receipt 
of  sovereigns  and  half  sovereigns  of  current  ir'-n/lif  at 
treasuries  in  payment  of  government  dues  at  the  rate 
of  15  rupees  per  sovereign;  and  (3)  for  the  issue  of  cur.- 
rency  notes  in  Calcutta  and  Bombay  in  exchange  for 
gold  coin  or  gold  bullion  at  the  rate  of  i  rupee  for  i6d. 
By  a  notification  of  the  nth  of  September,  1897,  sov- 
ereigns and  half-sovereigns  of  current  weight  are  also 
received  at  the  reserve  treasuries,  and  rupees  are  issued 
in  exchange  at  the  rate  of  15  rupees  per  sovereign." 
(These  last  two  regulations  put  the  rupee  paper  and 
silver  of  India  upon  a  gold  basis,  and  is  practically 
equivalent  to  coinage  of  the  gold  received,  for  the  notes 
circulate  in  lieu  of  the  gold  held  by  the  treasury  sim- 
ilarly to  the  gold  notes  of  the  United  States,  except 
that  in  the  United  States  gold  coin  is  held  for  the  pay- 
ment of  gold  notes,  and  in  India  uncoined  bullion  gold 
and  also  English  coined  gold  is  held.) 

''Proposals  were  made  by  the  government  of  India  in 


232  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

March,  1898,  for  further  steps  for  the  establishment  of 
a  gold  standard  for  India  on  the  basis  of  i6d.  per  rupee. 
These  proposals  were  referred  by  the  Secretary  of  State 
for  India  to  a  committee  in  London.  The  committee 
recommended  that  sovereigns  should  be  declared  a 
legal  tender  in  India  and  the  Indian  mint  opened  to  the 
free  coinage  of  gold."  [This  shameless  and  high- 
handed job  was  completed  without  consulting,  and  con- 
trary to,  the  wishes  and  interests  of  the  "common  peo- 
ple" of  India.] 

"The  proposals  of  the  committee  were  adopted  by  the 
government  of  India,  who,  by  an  act  (XXII,  of  1899), 
passed  on  the  I5th  of  September,  declared  the  sover- 
eign legal  tender  (the  standard  money  unit).  Meas- 
ures are  in  progress  for  the  coinage  of  gold  in  India." 

The  money  and  weights  of  India  with  the  British 
equivalents  are: — 

i  pie  ==  y^  farthing. 

3  pie  I  pice  ==  I  farthing. 

12  pie  4  pice  ==  I  anna  or  penny. 

1 6  annas  =  I  rupee. 

I  rupee  =-  is.  4d.  or  i6d. 

15  rupees  ==  I  pound  sterling. 

The  silver  rupee  weighs  I  tola,  or  180  grains  \\ 
fine,  a  piece  somewhat  smaller  than  our  silver  half 
dollar. 

The  sum  of  100,000  rupees  is  called  a  "lac,"  and 
10,000,000,  a  "crore"  of  rupees. 

The  old  gold  mohur  or  old  I5~rupee  piece  of  India 
contained  upon  issue  165  grains  of  pure  gold  and 
weighed  I  tola  or  180  grains,  and  there  were  2,  f,  and 
J  mohur  pieces  in  same  proportion.  The  old  ratio 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  233 

between  silver  and  gold  in  India  was  therefore  15  to  i. 
The  British  sovereign  contains  113  grains  of  pure 
gold.  So  that  the  rupee  of  old  times  is  not  the  rupee 
of  to-day.  The  rupee  of  to-day  is  i6d.  sterling.  These 
old  mohurs  are  being  retired  or  taken  in  for  the  re- 
coinage  and  within  a  few  years  will  practically  have 
disappeared. 

PHILIPPINE    ISLAXnS. 

The  coin  in  use  is  the  Mexican  dollar  with  locally- 
coined  fractional  money.  The  importation  of  foreign 
money  is  illegal,  but  that  of  Mexican  dollars  is  per- 
mitted. There  are  three  banks  in  the  islands,  one  of 
them,  the  Banco  Fspanol  Filipino,  having  a  note  circu- 
lation of  $2,500,000.  Steps  aie  under  consideration  by 
our  gold  "financier"  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  im- 
pose the  high-toned-robber  monetary  system  of  the 
United  States  upon  the  islands.  And,  really,  as  the 
sovereignty  has  passed  to  us,  our  despotic  monetary 
law  must  go  with  it,  at  least  under  any  strict  legal  con- 
struction of  supreme  general  law  or  what  is  called 
"constitutionality."  But  the  essential  essence  of  the 
Constitution  is  to  general  justice,  and  it  may  be  laid 
down  as  a  general  principle  that  the  American  Consti- 
tution "can  do  no  wrong,"  and  the  moment  any  con- 
struction is  shown  to  be  unjust  or  against  public  policy 
or  public  morals,  then  that  construction  must  be  re- 
garded as  erroneous. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  has  recognized 
a  silver  money  in  its  own  dominions,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  treaty  or  agreement  with  the  sultan  of  the  Zulu 
Archipelago,  and  in  other  cases. 


234  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

AFRICA. 

MOKOCCO. 

Spanish  5-peseta  pieces,  equal  to  the  5-franc  piece, 
are  current,  and  also  Moorish  pieces  minted  for  the 
government  in  France.  The  money  is,  therefore,  prac- 
tically the  same  as  the  French. 

ALGERIA. 

Standards  all  French. 

TUNIS. 

French  money. 

TRIPOLI. 

Unit  of  money  the  silver  mahbub(?). 
EGYPT. 

By  decree  of  November  14,  1885  (7  Seffer,  1303), 
the  monetary  unit  of  Egypt  is  the  gold  standard  pound 
of  100  piastres,  which  weighs  8.5  grammes  .875  Au., 
and  therefore  contains  7.4375  grammes  of  Au.  Its 
equivalent  in  sterling  is  £i  os.  6-Jd.  The  lo-piastre  sil- 
ver piece  weighs  12.5  grammes,  .900  Ag.  (same  as  the 
U.  S.  50  cents),  and  contains  11.25  grammes  Ag. 
Coins  in  circulation  are  the  pound  of  100  piastres  of 
gold,  and  the  20,  10,  5,  2,  and  i  piastres  of  silver.  For 
lower  denominations,  nickel  and  bronze.  Egyptian 
money  is  coined  at  the  Berlin  mint.  loo-piastre  piece 
is  tariffed  United  States  $4.943 ;  Egyptian  piastre,  there- 
fore, is  $0.04943. 


MONEY    COINAGES   AND    WEIGHTS.  235 

LIBERIA. 

Money  chiefly  in  use  is  British,  but  accounts  are  kept 
in  American  dollars  and  cents;  weights  and  measures 
mostly  British. 

ABYSSINIA. 

The  current  coin  of  Abyssinia  is  the  Maria  Theresa 
dollar,  but  a  new  coinage  has  been  put  in  circulation 
with  the  Menelik  dollar  for  the  standard  coin.  This 
new  coin,  by  law  equal  to  the  Maria  Theresa  dollar,  cir- 
culates in  the  capital  and  at  Harrar  at  the  same  value 
as  the  Maria  Theresa  dollar.  The  bullion  is  nearly  the 
same.  The  Abyssinian  ounce  weighs  430  grains,  the 
weight  of  the  Maria  Theresa  dollar.  (Statesman's 
Y.  B.) 

The  Maria  Theresa  dollar,  according  to  the  Diction- 
ary of  Political  Economy,  is  an  Austrian  silver  trade 
coin  first  struck  in  1775.  Since  1780,  however,  these 
coins  have  always  been  issued  bearing  the  date  1780 
and  the  effigy  of  the  Empress  Maria  Theresa.  They 
are  coined  for  use  in  the  Levant  and  Asiatic  trade, 
weigh  433.15  grains,  fineness  .8333  Ag.,  or  £  Ag., 
and,  therefore,  contain  360.958  grains  Ag.  This  coin 
has  no  subdivision  pieces.  It  will  continue  to  be  coined 
under  the  new  Austrian  currency  arrangements. 

OTHER    TERRITORIES. 

Have  coins  and  money,  as  in  Europe,  according  to  the 
respective  "spheres  of  influence."  However,  the  Eng- 
lish system  encroaches  to  a  great  extent  in  Portuguese 
territory  back  of  Lorenzo  Marquez  on  Delagoa  Bay. 


236  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

AMERICA. 

UNITED  STATES. 

See  history  of  United  States  money  and  also  the 
chapter  on  weight.  The  money  is  gold  .900  An., 
.100  Cu.  The  money  unit  is  the  dollar  of  25.8  grains, 
23.22  grains  An.,  or  by  the  metric  system  it  corresponds 
to  1.671  grammes,  1.50464  grammes  Au. 

CANADA. 

The  money  unit  is  the  United  States  dollar  of  100 
cents.  The  value  of  the  money  of  the  United  King- 
dom is  fixed  as  follows:  The  sovereign,  at  $4.86;  the 
crown,  at  $1.20;  and  the  half  crown,  florin,  and  six- 
pence proportionately.  Canada  has  no  gold  coin  of  its 
own,  but  the  English  sovereign  and  the  United  States 
2,  I,  -J,  and  J  eagle  are  legal.  Canada  coins  subsidiary 
silver  tokens,  and  notes  are  issued  by  the  Canadian 
Government  exclusively,  for  4,  2,  i,  and  |  dollars,  no 
bank  being  allowed  to  issue  notes  for  a  less  sum  than 
$5.  The  imperial  yard,  pound  avoirdupois,  gallon,  and 
bushel  are  legal.  But  the  hundred  weight  is  legally 
declared  to  be  -100  pounds  and  the  ton  2,000  pounds, 
as  in  the  United  States. 

MEXICO. 

The  monetary  unit  of  Mexico  is  the  peso  of  100 
centavos,  and  the  money  consists  of  I  of  (weights)  of 
pure  silver  to  every  ij  (weights)  of  "alloy"  (probably 
pure  copper),  or  it  is  of  the  unique  fineness  of  65  parts 
of  pure  silver  in  every  72  parts  of  money  metal,  ff 
being  resolved  decimally  gives  a  fineness  of  .90277,  etc., 


MONEY    COINAGES   AND    WEIGHTS.  237 

or  exactly  .902^.  The  Statesman's  Year  Book  gives  the 
weight  of  a  Mexican  dollar  as  27.073  grammes;  f  f  of  this 
is  24.44!!  grammes  of  pure  silver,  or  the  same  as  24ff 
grammes  of  pure  silver.  Norman,  a  man  of  genius 
and  character,  who  always  strives  at  accuracy,  gives  the 
weight  of  the  Mexican  dollar  gross  at  27.0643,  but  as 
the  Bureau  of  American  Republics  also  gives  the  gross 
weight  of  the  Mexican  dollar  27.073,  we  have  adopted 
this  weight. 

Besides  the  silver  peso  are  coined  the  J,  £,  and 
TV  peso,  as  also  nickel  and  copper  5,2,  and  centavo  pieces- 
There  are  also  coined  gold  20,  10,  5,  and  i-peso  pieces, 
although  nominally  or  popularly  called  gold  pesos, 
they  are  worth  more  than  silver  pesos  and  pass  or  ex- 
change not  at  their  nominal  value,  but  at  a  price  as 
metal,  in  exchange  for  silver  money.  The  true  legal 
name  for  the  $10  Mexican  gold  piece  is  the  hidalgo  and 
the  other  pieces  are  double,  half,  etc.,  hidalgos.  All 
these  gold  pieces  are  .875  fine.  The  lo-peso  piece  or 
hidalgo  weighs  UMJJO  grammes  .875  Au.,  and  therefore 
contains  14.795  grammes  Au.  There  were  formerly 
coined  the  gold  ou/a  or  dublon  (doubloon)  or  gold 
$16  piece,  and  also  in  silver  the  real  or  12^-cent  piece, 
the  medio  (medio  real)  or  6-j-cent  piece,  and  the  cuar- 
tillo  (the  little  cuarto  real)  or  3^-cent  piece,  and  the 
copper  tlaco  or  claco  to  pass  for  half  a  cuartillo  as  also 
copper  cents  which  are  still  coined.  The  grano,  as  a 
monetary  weight,  was  -J-s  of  a  peso  or  f-%  of  a  real. 
The  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures  was  intro- 
duced in  1884,  and  its  use  enforced  by  law  in  1895, 
though  practically  the  old  Spanish  weights  are  more 
usual. 

The  old  weights  for    gold    and    silver    and    for    ores 
were : — 


238  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

I  quintal  is  100  pounds  or  4  arrobas  and  is  46.08 
kilograms,  a  libra  being  460.8  grams  or  .4608  kilo- 
gram. A  quintal  weighs  101.4,  an  arroba  25.357,  and 
a  libra  1.014  avoirdupois  pounds  respectively.  A 
marco  is  8  onzas  or  -J  libra,  or  4,608  granos;  a  tomino  is 
12  granos,  and  6  tominos  is  an  ochava  or  dracma  of  72 
granos;  and  8  orcavas  make  an  onza  of  576  granos;  16 
onzas  make  a  libra  of  9,216  granos.  20  granos  is  a 
French  gramme  or  gram. 

An  avoirdupois  pound  is  453.5926  grammes. 

Mexico  has  four  mints.  Most  of  the  silver  exported 
is  shipped  in  the  shape  of  dollars, , which  find  their  way 
to  China  and  the  smaller  communities  of  Indo  China 
and  the  eastern  archipelago.  The  Mexican  dollar  is 
the  best  known  coin  in  Asia.  The  other  great  silver 
coins  were  the  rupee  and  rouble.  These  latter  two 
have  recently  become  names  for  gold  instead  of  silver 
money  units,  and  the  silver  rupee  and  rouble  are  now 
only  token  coins  in  gold  monetary  systems.  Such  has 
been  the  result  of  the  maleficent  heresy  of  gold  mono- 
metallism, and  nearly  every  supreme  legislature  in  the 
world  has,  by  its  solicitous  champions,  been  brought 
under  the  baleful  influence.  It  is  truly  the  upas  tree 
of  politics. 

GUATEMALA. 

Unit  of  money,  the  silver  peso,  100  centavos,  the 
same  in  weight  as  the  old  Peruvian  silver  sol,  and  same 
weights  and  measures  as  Peru.  The  metric  system 
has  been  adopted,  but  has  not  come  into  full  use,  espe- 
cially as  to  weights.  By  decree  in  October,  1898,  the 
six  banks  of  the  country  were  empowered  to  arrange 
for  the  issue  of  notes  to  the  amount  of  $6,000,000, 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  239 

which  should  be  legal  tender  to  the  exclusion  of  bank 
bills  and  coin  even  in  the  case  of  debts  contracted  to  be 
paid  in  silver.  There  is  little  metallic  money  in  circu- 
lation. In  1899  silver  \vas  at  a  premium  of  70  per  cent, 
and  gold  rose  as  high  as  430  per  cent  in  emergencies. 
The  old  weights  are  those  of  Spain,  libra  1.014  Ibs.  av. 
The  peso  weighs  25  grammes  or  385.808  grains,  same 
weight  and  composition  as  the  French  5-franc  piece. 


Money  unit  the  peso  of  100  cents,  weighing  25 
grammes,  same  weight  as  that  of  Guatemala  and  Peru, 
and  same  weights  and  measures.  The  metric  system 
has  been  introduced,  but  is  not  general.  (See  British 
Honduras  at  the  end.) 

NICARAGUA. 

Silver  standard,  peso,  100  centavos,  same  weights  and 
measures  as  Guatemala.  The  libra  of  Guatemala  and 
Peru,  etc.,  is  the  old  libra  of  Spain. 

SALVADOR. 

in  August,  1-^97,  a  la\\  was  passed  adopting  the  gold 
standard.  \Ye  do  not  know  what  the  money  unit  is 
further  than  it  is  of  gold,  called  a  peso  or  dollar,  and, 
according  to  the  Statesman's  Year  Book,  6f  of  them 
go  to  a  pound  sterling.  Weights  and  measures  as  in 
Guatemala  and  Peru.  The  silver  dollar  or  peso 
weighed  25  grammes. 

COSTA    RICA. 

The  money  unit  is  actually  the  silver  peso,  100  cen- 
tavos, .900  fine;  weight,  25  grammes  or  385.8  grains. 


240  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    7AU1E. 

The  silver  in  circulation  amounts  to  about  350,000 
pesos;  paper  in  1896,  $3,300,000;  with  specie  reserve 
of  in  1896,  $1,250,000. 

The  paper  peso  is  worth  about  35  cents.  On  Oct. 
26,  1896,  an  ace  was  passed  for  the  adoption  of  the  gold 
standard  at  the  ratio  of  26  J  to  T.  The  monetary  unit 
will  be  called  the  colon  and  will  be  divided  into  100 
centavos.  The  colon  will  be  of  gold  .900  fine,  and 
weigh  .778  grammes.  The  present  silver  coin  will 
continue  in  circulation. 

The  new  silver  coinage  wrill  be  .750  fine,  and  consist 
of  fractions  of  the  colon  or  50,  25,  10,  and  5~cent  or 
centavo  pieces,  and  will  be  legal  tender  up  to  i  colon. 
Foreign  gold  will  be  legal,  but  not  foreign  silver.  This 
project  in  1898  had  not  yet  been  carried  out.  Steps  are 

being  taken  toward  its  completion. 

• 

U.   S.    OF   COLOMBIA. 

The  unit  of  weight  is  the  peso,  100  centaves.  .835 
fine.  It  is  divided  into  10  reales,  but  the.  people  in 
trade  generally  adopt  the  old  system  of  8  rea'ies  to  the 
dollar.  We  do  not  know  its  weight.  At  Panama  and 
Colon,  where  paper  has  not  yet  been  introduced,  the 
sol  or  Peruvian  dollar  is  the  money  unit. 

Coined  pieces  are  the  peso,  80,  50,  20,  and  lo-cent 
coins  and  in  nickel  5  and  2^  cents,  also  copper  cents. 
The  real  of  12  J  cents  and  the  2,  -J,  and  J,  are  no  longer 
coined.  The  metric  system  was  introduced  in  1857. 
In  custom  house  business  the  kilogram,  equal  to  2.204 
pounds  avoirdupois,  is  the  standard.  In  ordinary 
commerce  the  Colombian  pound  or  libra,  equal  to  1.102 
pounds  av.  or  -$•  kilo  to  the  standard. 

i  quintal  is  50  kilos  or  100    libras;    I  arroba  is    I2-J 


MONEY    COINAGES   AND    WEIGHTS.  241 

kilos  or  25  libras;  and  the  carga  (originally  mule  load) 
is  250  pounds  or  125  kilos.  The  Colombian  vara  is 
the  measure  of  length,  but  the  litre  is  the  standard  for 
liquid  measure.  The  Colombian  peso  goes  at  the 
United  States  custom  house  for  $0.436. 

VENEZUELA. 

In  July,  1896,  it  was  enacted  that  the  issue  of  paper 
money  by  the  state  should  cease,  and  that  no  more 
silver  or  nickel  should  be  coined  without  legislative 
enactment.  The  intention  was  to  issue  in  future  only 
gold  coin  and  certificates  representing  gold  in  hand. 
The  currency  in  1896  was  stated  to  consist  of  12,000,- 
ooo  bolivars  in  gold  and  8,000,000  bolivars  in  silver. 
The  old  unit  was  the  peso  of  5  bolivars,  the  latter  being 
the  weight  of  a  franc. 

The  bolivar  is  the  new  unit  and  the  same  as  the 
franc.  It  is  of  gold  and  goes  at  19.3  in  United  States 
customs.  There  are  5,  10,  20,  50,  and  loo-bolivar 
pieces. 

BRITISH   GUIANA. 

British  gold  and  silver  coin  is  current,  with  a  small 
circulation  of  "guilders,''  ''half  guilders,"  and  "bits," 
which  are  local  coins. 

Dutch  Guiana  or  Surinam  same  as  Holland. 

French  Guiana  same  as  France. 

BRAZIL. 

Professedly  the  standard  is  gold.  Gold  and  silver 
coins  have  almost  entirely  disappeared,  there  being 
in  actual  circulation  only  inconvertable  paper  currency 
and  nickel  and  bronze  coins. 

16 


242  V A LICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

The  money  unit  is  the  milreis.  The  10  milreis  gold 
piece  weighs  8.9648  grammes  %$  fine  and  thus  con- 
tains 8.2178  grammes  of  par  fine  gold. 

The  milreis  is  of  the  par  value  of  2s.  2-Jd.  or  10  gold 
milreis  are  worth  $5.468.  i  milreis  $0.5468  United 
States. 

The  goid  milreis  is  taken  at  the  United  States  cus- 
tom house  at  $0.546.  The  metric  system  is  used  in  all 
official  departments.  The  libra  of  1.012  av.  pounds, 
however,  is  much  employed. 

In  a  kilogram  of  Au.  there  is  sufficient  Au.  for  the 
Au.  of  1,216.875  milreis. 

In  gold  and  silver  weight  the  old  system  is: — 
24  graos  (grains)  =  i  escrupolo,  1.1953  gramme,  18.480  grains. 
3  escrupulo  =  i  oitava,  3-5859          "       55-34*        " 

8  oitavas  =  i  onsa,  28.6875          "     442.7208      " 

8  onsas  =  i  marco,  229.5  "3,541.7664      " 

2  marcos  =  i  libra,  459-Q  "  7,083.5328      " 

The  libra  above  in  the  table  is  the  same  libra  as  was 
used  for  other  commodities  (there  being  no  distinction 
as  we  have  it  between  troy  and  avoirdupois;  a  marco 
or  old  mark  is  half  a  i6-ounce  pound).  The  milreis  of 
Brazil  is  not  the  same  as  the  milreis  of  Portugal. 

ECUADOR. 

The  money  unit  is  the  sucre  of  100  cents;  weight,  25 
grammes  .900  Au.  The  sucre  is  so  called  from  the 
likeness  of  Marshall  Sucre,  a  former  president,  im- 
printed on  the  coin.  Other  silver  coins  are  50,  20,  10, 
and  5-cent  pieces.  There  are  nickel  5,  i,  and  -J-cent 
pieces,  and  2  and  i-cent  bronze  coins.  A  law  passed 
in  1898,  providing  for  a  gold  standard,  will  come  in 
force  in  1901.  The  new  coinage  will  consist  of  the 
gold  condor  of  10  sucres,  weighing  8.136  grammes  and 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  243 

containing  7.3224  grammes  Au.,  the  same  as  the  Brit- 
ish sovereign. 

Silver  coins  are  the  silver  sucre  and  its  subdivisions 
and  nickel  and  copper  representing  smaller  quantities. 

The  metric  system  is  legal,  but  the  libra  of  1.014  av. 
pounds  is  used.  Ecuador  has  no  mint,  the  coin  of  the 
country  being  minted  in  England,  and  the  United 
States,  and  Peru. 

PERU. 

A  decree  was  issued  by  the  president  of  the  republic 
on  January  10,  1898,  to  give  eifect  to  the  law  of  Dec. 
29,  1897,  establishing  a  gold  currency.  The  national 
gold  coin,  the  libra,  is  of  the  same  standard  and  weight 
as  the  pound  sterling. 

The  gold  coin,  the  libra,  is  equal  to  10  sols,  equal  to 
the  British  sovereign. 

Libra  is  also  the  name  for  a  weight  corresponding  to 
the  pound,  just  as  in  England  there  are  pounds  sterling 
and  pounds  avoirdupois. 

Silver  coins  are  the  sol,  J,  ^,  TV  and  ^V  s°l-  Bronze 
coins  are  I  and  2  centavo  pieces.  The  silver  sol  weighs 
25  grammes. 

The  French  system  of  weights  and  measures  is  legal, 
but  has  not  come  into  general  use  except  for  customs 
and  tariff.  The  old  weights  are  Spanish  ones, — libra, 
1.014  Ibs.  av.  The  old  silver  sol  weighed  25  grammes 
.900  fine. 

BOLIVIA. 

Silver  standard,  money  unit  is  the  silver  boliviano  or 
dollar  or  peso  of  100  centavos,  25  grammes,  .900  Ag., 
worth  in  United  States  customs  $0.436.  Other  coins 


244  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

are  50,  20,  10,  and  5-cent  pieces,  called  half  boliviano, 
peseta,  real,  and  half  real.  No  gold  pieces  have  been 
coined  for  many  years.  Notwithstanding  the  large 
production  of  silver,  there  is  a  scarcity  of  coin,  for  the 
metal  not  at  once  exported  is  minted  and  leaves  the 
country  as  coin.  The  mint  coins  now  only  half  boliv- 
ians  and  2O-cent  pieces,  S  per  cent  lighter  than  the  old 
bolivianos.  There  are  also  10  and  5-cent  nickel  coins. 
In  1899  nickel  coin  was  minted  for  Bolivia  at  Paris  to 
the  nominal  value  of  §400,000  bolivianos. 

The  metric  system  is  used  by  the  administration,  but 
the  old  Spanish  system  is  also  employed.  The  marco 
weight  for  mineral  produce  is  equal  to  .507  av.  pounds, 
and  the  libra  to  2  marcos,  1.014  pounds. 

CHILE. 

According  to  the  Act  of  1895,  the  coinage  of  Chile 
is  as  follows: — 

Gold  coins  are  20,  10,  5-peso  pieces,  called  the  colon 
or  condor,  the  doblon,  and  the  escudo. 

The  lo-peso  piece  weighs  5.99103  grammes  |J  AuM 
and  therefore  contains  5.49178  grammes  of  Au. 

Silver  coins  are  the  peso,  weighing  20  grammes  .835 
fine,  and  the  5th,  loth,  and  2Oth  peso.  Bronze  coins 
are  the  I  and  2-centavo  pieces.  The  monetary  unit  is 
the  twentieth  part  of  a  colon  or  .599103  grammes  .916 
Au.,  containing  .549178  grammes  Au.  It  is  called  the 
gold  peso. 

Metric  system  is  established,  but  old  Spanish  stand- 
ards used  to  some  extent.  The  old  Chilian  silver  peso 
weighed  25  grammes  .900  Ag. 

PARAGUAY. 
Very  much  in  debt,  a  paper    money  in    circulation. 


MONEY    COINAGES   AND    WEIGHTS.  245 

Unit  the  dollar  or  peso  of  100  centavos.  The  amount 
of  paper  money  in  circulation  December,  1898,  was 
9,785,000  pesos.  Gold  at  a  premium  of  740  per  cent. 
Do  not  know  the  weight  of  the  money  unit  nor  its  ma- 
terial. The  old  Spanish  weights  and  measures  are  in 
use. 

ARGENTINE  REPUBLIC. 

The  paper  currency  in  September,  1899,  amounted 
to  295,165,957  pesos.  In  1899  a  bill  was  approved  by 
Congress  for  converting  the  paper  dollar  at  4  cents 
gold. 

The  5 -peso  gold  piece  weighs  8.0645  grammes  .900 
Au.,  and  contains  7.25805  grammes  An. 

The  standard  is  gold,  but  the  country  for  some  years 
has  been  "financially  embarrassed/''  and  has  not  been 
able  to  fulfil  her  obligations  or  "convert"  her  paper. 
The  silver  coins  are  the  peso  and  subdivisions  and 
nickel  and  copper.  The  currency  in  circulation  is 
paper  or  bronze  and  nickel.  When  paper  gets  so  that 
the  money  you  get  for  it  has  less  value  than  the  melted 
silver  token,  it  even  causes  token  silver  to  be  taken  off 
the  market,  which  is  no  better  as  a  "legal  tender  for 
debt,"  but,  as  a  material,  has  of  itself  a  very  important 
value  which  is  not  the  case  with  paper. 

The  metric  system  is  compulsory  in  the  Argentine. 

URUGUAY. 

There  is  no  Uruguayan  gold  coin  in  circulation,  but 
the  monetary  standard  is  gold,  the  theoretical  gold  coin 
being  the  peso  national,  weighing  1.697  grammes  \\ 
or  .917  fine.  The  law  of  June  23,  1862,  authorized  the 
coinage  of  the  doblon  or  lo-peso  gold  piece,  but  as  yet 
only  foreign  gold  is  in  circulation.  • 


246  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALVE. 

The  silver  peso  weighs  25  grammes  .900  fine,  divided 
into  halves,  fifths,  and  tenths.  There  are  bronze  coins, 
5,  2,  and  i-centesimo  pieces.  The  metric  system  is 
official.  The  libra  of  the  old  system  same  as  Mexico, 
1.014  Ib.  av. 

BRITISH  HONDURAS. 

United  States  gold  coin  was  adopted  as  the  standard 
money  in  1894,  and,  of  course,  the  money  unit  is  the 
United  States  dollar.  There  is  a  local  subsidiary  silver 
token  coinage  for  $200,000,  and  also  a  paper  currency. 

SANTO  DOMINGO. 

On  July  i,  1897,  the  United  States  gold  dollar  was 
adopted  as  the  money  unit,  and  United  States  gold  is 
the  money  of  the  republic.  The  finances  are  demor- 
alized, and  only  silver  and  paper  are  in  circulation. 
The  government  is  unable  to  "convert,"  so  it  is  that 
this  token  silver  and  paper  currency  is  "depreciated" 
and  fluctuates. 

HAITI. 

The  money  unit  is  the  gourde  or  dollar,  being  the 
same  as  five  francs.  The  silver  gourde  or  token  coin 
for  this  money  unit  weighs  25  grammes.  However, 
on  account  of  the  riot  thoroughly  sound  finances  of 
the  country,  it  is  subject  to  some  fluctuation,  as  ex- 
pressed in  American  gold  coin.  It  usually  goes  for 
about  1.17  gourde  to  one  United  States  dollar,  al- 
though its  value  should  be,  or  rather  the  value  which  it 
should  signify  is  five  times  19.3  cents,  or  ninety-six  and 
one-half  cents;  and  it  is  quoted  by  the  United  States 
Treasurer  at  $0.965.  The  Haytian  paper  is  consider- 
ably more  depreciated. 


MONEY    COINAGES    AND    WEIGHTS.  247 

CUBA. 
Spanish  and  American  money. 

RATIO   OF   SILVER    TO    GOLD. 

Year.  0123456789 

14.94  14.91  15.02 

169 15.02  14.98  14.92  14.83  14.87  15.02  15.00  15.20  15.07  14.94 

170 14.81  15.07  15.52  15.17  15.22  15.11  15.27  15.44  15.41  15.31 

171 15.22  15.29  1531  15.24  15.13  15.11  15.09  15.13  15.11  15.09 

172 15.04  15.05  15.17  15.20  15.11  15.11  15.15  15.24  15.11  14.92 

173 14.81  14.94  15.09  15.18  15.39  15.41  15.18  15.02  14.91  14.91 

174 14.94  14.92  14.85  14.85  14.87  14.93  15.13  15.26  15.11  14.80 

17.', 14.55  14.39  14.54  14.54  14.48  14.68  14.94  14.87  14.85  14.12 

176 14.14  14.54  15.27  14.99  14.70  14.83  14.80  14.85  14.80  14.75 

177     14.62  14.66  14.52  14.62  14.62  14.72  14.55  14.54  14.68  14.80 

178 14.72  14.78  14.42  14.48  14.70  14.92  14.96  14.92  14.65  14.75 

179 1504  15.05  15.17  15.01  15.37  15.55  15.65  15.41  15.59  15.74 

180  15.68  15.46  16.26  15.41  15.41  15.79  15.52  15.43  16.08  15.96 

181 15.77  15.53  16.11  16.25  15.04  15.26  15.28  15.11-15.35  15.33 

182 15.02  15.'.)5  15. SO  15.M  15.  v>  15.70  15.76  15.74  15.78  15.78 

183 15.82  15.72  15.73  15.U3  15.7:',  15.80  15.72  15.83  15.85  15.62 

184 15.02  15.70  15.87  15.93  15.85  15.92  15.90  15.80  15X5  15.78 

185  15.70  15.46  15.59  15.33  15.33  15.38  15.38  15.27  15.38  15.19 

180 15.25)  15.50  15.35  15.37  15.37  15.44  15.48  15.57  15.59  15.60 

187 15.57  15.57  15.63  15.!)2  16.17  16.59  17.x*  17.22  17.94  18.40 

188 18.05  18.16  is.19  18.64  18.57  19.41  20.78  21.13  21.99  22.09 

189 19.75  20.112  2:1.72  26.70  32.58  31.60  30.66  34.28  35.03  

The  reader  will  readily  understand  this  table  by 
bearing  in  mind  that  the  first  three  figures  of  the  year 
are  found  in  the  column  at  the  left  and  the  fourth  at 
the  top  of  some  one  of  the  other  columns.  At  the 
intersection  is  found  the  ratio,  just  as  is  found  the  prod- 
uct of  any  two  numbers  in  a  multiplication  table,  for 
instance,  take  the  year  1691,  the  ratio  is  put  down  as 
14.98  to  i. 

For  the  years  1687  to  1832  these  numbers  were  taken 
from  the  tables  of  A.  Soetbeer;  from  thence  to  1878, 
from  Pixley  and  Abell's  tables;  and  from  thence  by  the 
United  States  mint.  We  know  of  no  other  such  table 
of  prices  brought  down  through  the  centuries,  and  the 
above  prices  were  not  prices  of  free  conditions.  The 


248  VALICS,    OR    THE    SCIENCE    OF    VALUE. 

above  may  be  considered  as  fairly  the  world's  average 
for  modern  times,  say  from  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury or  thereabout,  and  still  better  as  we  come  down 
later,  say  particularly  from  the  year  in  which  the  At- 
lantic telegraph,  from  America  to  Europe,  was  com- 
pleted, which  was  in  1866,  though  the  telegraph  was 
invented  in  1832. 

In  early  times,  as  we  have  indicated,  the  divergences 
in  different  countries  were  far  greater  than  at  present. 
When  Japan  was  first  opened  to  western  commerce,  the 
ratio  in  that  country  between  silver  and  gold  was  about 
4  to  i.  And,  owing  to  this  fact,  immense  fortunes 
were  made  by  commercial  pioneers.  The  price  of  sil- 
ver now  in  1900  is  about  60  cents  per  ounce,  which 
gives  the  ratio  34.45  to  I.  Divide  $20.67,  which  is  the 
price  of  an  ounce  of  pure  gold,  by  $0.60,  or  divide 
20.67,  which  is  the  price  in  dollars  of  an  ounce  of  pure 
gold,  by  0.60,  which  is  about  the  price  in  dollars  of  an 
ounce  of  pure  silver  in  New  York  City  at  the  present 
time. 


PRACTICAL. 

Faith  without  works  is  dead,  and  we  believe  that  men 
who  have  clear  convictions  should  assert  them  or  live 
for  them,  for  upon  such  character  the  hope  of  the  world 
is  founded. 

We  know  that  all  good  American  citizens  are  of  the 
same  "politics"  on  this  proposition,  viz.,  that  they  de- 
sire the  welfare  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

Such  as  have  hitherto  politically  sustained  the  gold 
standard  would  do  well  to  carefully  investigate  the 
reasoning  that  should  lead  to  such  action. 

Intelligent  research  (we  believe)  must  alter  this 
mind,  and  consequently  this  vote.  Wherefore  let 
those  who  think  that  in  this  matter  they  stand  upon 
solid  ground,  take  care  lest  they  be  sinking  into  a  mire 
of  error,  perhaps  taking  future  generations  with  them, 
for  any  public  sin  or  error  is  visited  upon,  or  is  malefi- 
cent to,  at  least  as  many  generations  as  have  the  mis- 
fortune to  live  under  it. 

The  money  question  is  a  question  that  is  not  yet 
settled,  and  "a  question  is  never  settled  until  it  is  set- 
tled right."  WThen  we  "know  the  truth  the  truth  will 
make  us  free."  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  American  citi- 
zens will  search  for  the  truth  upon  the  money  question, 
so  that  we  may  adopt  it,  and  be  free  of  this  question  in 
active  "politics,"  as  we  so  happily  are  of  the  religious 
question  and  some  others.  This  will  give  us  room  for 
still  further  advance  in  other  directions,  for  there  are 
other  political  battles  to  be  won,  we  hope  in  peace,  for 
Peace  hath  her  victories  fully  as  noble  as  those  of  war. 


ANNOUNCEMENT, 

This  book  may  be  obtained  by  sending  one  dollar  ($1.00) 
to  George  Reed,  10  Stevenson  St.,  San  Francisco.  Ask 
your  dealer  for  it.  (Discount  to  the  trade.) 

This  book  makes  plain  a  much-muddled  public  ques- 
tion, bringing  it  into  harmony  with  indestructible 
common  sense  or  scientific  principles  whereby  it  may 
be  justly  settled,  thus  making  room  for  the  serious  con- 
sideration of  other  questions  of  vast  importance  to  the 
people. 

Every  man  who  desires  his  country's  welfare,  the 
emancipation  of  slaves,  the  expansion  of  truth,  or  the 
imperialism  oi  justice,  should  procure  a  copy.  The 
natural  result  of  these  ideas  is  of  tremendous  practical 
importance,  and  they  should  be  universally  circulated. 

We  hope  the  reader  may  incline  to  become  a  factor 
in  this  propaganda,  and,  if  so,  beg  him  to  help  us,  and 
ask  his  earnest  endeavor  toward  the  dissemination  of 
these  truths. 

If  we  are  properly  encouraged,  we  shall  accomplish 
what  we  intend,  which  is  the  destruction  of  the  gold 
standard  theory  and  practise  in  the  United  States  and 
in  the  world  and  the  speedy  adoption  of  a  silver  money 
in  the  United  States.  The  theory  of  the  gold  standard 
is  an  arch  in  the  circle  that  upholds  the  dome  of  mod- 
ern oppression;  to  destroy  it  is  the  prelude  to  the  de- 
struction of  the  whole  fabric;  or,  by  other  comparison, 
it  is  the  reveille  in  the  happy  dawn  of  a  new  day,  when 
Might  shall  protect  Right,  or  Truth  shall  sit  upon  the 
right  hand  of  Power. 


There  is  more  real  information  in  "Varies"  upon  the 
subjects  of  value  and  money  than  can  be  found  in  all 
other  works  collectively  that  have  heretofore  been  pub- 
lished. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN     INITIAL     FINE     OF     25     CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  5O  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


NOV  22  193 

NOV  23  1932 

NOV  25  1934 

SEP   6  1939 

FEB  8  1946 


12  Ifltf 

Ma/SOHJ 


REC'D  LD 

MAS  31  1950 


LD  21-50m-8.-32 


YC  23571 


